Welcome to your Escape
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: He doesn't want to see his father, and he doesn't want to be in Japan. He just wants to be somewhere else for a while and fit in with people that want him. On the day he's supposed to meet his father, Shinji Ikari gets a different offer that allows him to do just that. Enter the world of Zi, home to the Zoids, and waiting for him is one that will bring out his chance to defy all.
1. Welcome to your Escape

Creation began on 07-06-19

Creation ended on 07-09-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape

A/N: Gundam Meister of Rituals inspired this idea of a crossover.

What made people deserve the right to be called parents to a child or children of the Twenty-First Century? That was a question that Shinji Ikari, one such child, couldn't obtain an answer to because nobody was willing to answer for him. His own parents were, despite his best efforts to think positively of, lack of any better word, nonexistent; his mother was said to have died in a freak accident when he was too young to remember anything and his father was stated by many to not be a man that was good at understanding the needs of anyone other than his own, including the needs of his son. For all fourteen years of his life, Shinji seemed to be a prime example of a child without parents and left in a world that failed on purpose to do right by him.

The train ride to Tokyo-2 did nothing to help him with his personal thoughts about seeing his father, who sent him a letter telling him to come to Tokyo-3, something he had to share with his guardians that he was against doing because he didn't believe there to be any positive reason behind wanting to see his only son after so long. Unfortunately, they didn't give him a choice in the matter; he had to go see him…and they wanted him gone.

-x-

"…You sure this is him?" A man asked on a cell phone a block away from the Tokyo-2 train station he was supposed to be at, looking at a photo of a young man with a miserable expression. "He doesn't seem to be anyone who knows about anything."

"That's because he doesn't know anything," a female voice responded to him on the other end. "But he's a person that can help our cause more than his father wants to manipulate him to further his own. And we won't lie to him, either. Carefully approach him and try to get him away before Ms. Katsuragi arrives. Timing is everything."

"Understood, ma'am."

Hanging up on the phone, the man returned his gaze to the station, just in time to see his target walking down the steps, seemingly frustrated over something.

"Well, no time like the present," he sighed and ran across the street to approach him. "Shinji Ikari? Are you Shinji Ikari?"

The boy looked at him, looking confused, and then looked down at a photo in his right hand.

"Did my father send you?" He asked.

"No, I don't work for your father," the man answered him. "I represent a group of individuals led by a woman who has a proposition for you."

"What are you talking about?"

"We know about your father and his agency…and what he plans to do with you. My employer wishes to save you from him by offering you something else to devote your time to…of your own volition, not something that you'll be forced to do by a man that can't be bothered to do right by his only son. And she'll tell you everything she knows about why your father wanted you to come here; she won't deceive you."

"Why should I believe you?"

"That's the smartest question you've asked me. My employer knows a lot about you, Shinji Ikari. She's researched you thoroughly, and believes that you're the right person her group needs for an ambitious goal all its members strive for. You're not happy with your life here in Japan. You don't know anything about your parents because your guardians refuse to disclose anything about them to you…and you have no friends of which to hang with. You're practically alone all the time…and you don't want to be, but you don't want to be here, either. Do you really want to meet your father? Deep down, I think you know what is to be expected from going to him if you do…and you don't want that at all."

Shinji looked down at his father's letter him, nothing but redacted information and a handwritten note saying for him to come to Tokyo-3…and not in any way nice to his ears. Then, he looked at the picture of the woman who was to pick him up, her provocative pose somewhat disturbing to his mind. Maybe he did know what was to be expected from seeing his father deep down…and it wasn't something he wanted to happen to him.

"Does your employer have a name, sir?" He asked the man.

"Nico Megumi of the Clover Team," he answered Shinji. "Are you familiar in any way with the Zi Organic Intelligence Droid system?"

Shinji gave him a confused look; he clearly had no idea what any of that meant.

"It's okay," he explained. "Not many people do."

-x-

"…What do you mean, he wasn't there?" Ritsuko Akagi asked Misato Katsuragi over the phone as the latter woman was on her way back to NERV HQ shortly after the discovery of the boy she volunteered to pick up wasn't at the train station in Tokyo-2. "Did you even go to the pickup site he was supposed to be at?"

"I did, and there wasn't anyone there," Misato answered. "Either he was there earlier and left…or he never showed up at all."

"Commander Ikari will be disappointed about this."

"You don't need to tell me that; he always seems disappointed about everything, no matter what it is."

"But this will be a major disappointment; he was expecting his son to be here."

Beep! The faux-blond woman's phone received an alert.

"Hold on, there's another call," she informed Misato, and pressed a button to accept the new call. "This had better be important; otherwise, you're wasting both my time and that of NERV's."

"I'm calling from an unlisted number to inform you that the boy you were expecting to arrive today won't be coming," a female voice revealed to her. "He won't be arriving today, tomorrow or any other time in the foreseeable future. He has been sought after by my employer with a better proposition that doesn't require him to do something dangerous to his own life."

"Who is this?" Ritsuko demanded, but the call ended.

-x-

"…The Angel was defeated with three N² mines placed where it stopped advancing and was unable to regenerate from its damage," Kozo Fuyutsuki told Gendo in the latter's office when it was discovered that the military forces stationed near Tokyo-2 had a different strategy suggested to them by a random member over their initial strategy to utilize only one N² mine to defeat the Angel. "This unexpected outcome gives NERV more time prepare for the next attack, since we were unprepared for this one."

"The Third Child was supposed to arrive here today," Gendo responded as he was displeased with the discovery that his son was approached by some other group…and how the boy just up and decided to accept an irresponsible offer to him when he was supposed to be here helping them. "Who approaches a boy with a previous obligation to our cause and just convinces him to accept an offer he knows nothing about?"

"Are we any different, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki questioned him, not that the offer the boy would've been given by NERV would've been any different or better than the one he had accepted from a stranger that just approached him off the street.

Ring! Gendo's desk phone rang, and he answered it.

"Ikari, speaking," he uttered, and then his face frowned. "Is that so? Very well, then, let her in."

He hung up and wondered who could be here to disclose the recent information they had on the Third Child's current whereabouts.

The door to his office opened up and Captain Katsuragi came in with a woman around her age that had long, brownish-red hair and a lighter complexion than any of them possessed, dressed in a business suit.

"Commander Ikari, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," Misato introduced, "this is Samantha Toros of the ZB Commission."

"How do you do, gentlemen?" The woman, Samantha Toros greeted the men.

"You caught us at a bad time, ma'am," Fuyutsuki expressed.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that you were caught at a good time," she explained. "Unpredictability and unexpected outcomes make for better solutions to unanticipated situations. I'm here to let you know that you don't have to worry about Shinji Ikari for the time being."

"What have you done with him?" Misato demanded from her.

"I've done nothing," Samantha defended. "You'd have to ask the woman that requested for him to join her group; she made the call and had him approached before you were expected to get him. All I know is that he was made an offer that he could've chosen to refuse…and he accepted after a short while to ponder what was likely to happen to him had he stayed here in Japan."

"And what would've happened to him had he stayed here, he'd be…trafficked around someplace?" Fuyutsuki suggested.

"No way would he be harmed in such a degree. He was asked to join in something that isn't a live-or-die situation, just a win-or-lose one."

"Elaborate," Gendo demanded.

"Is NERV familiar with what the ZB Commission does?" Samantha asked them.

"We don't even know what the ZB Commission is," Misato explained; this was the first she had ever heard of such an organization.

"What about the Zi Organic Intelligence Droid systems?"

Fuyutsuki's eyes widened at the sound of that terminology uttered and responded with one word.

"Zoids," he spoke. "You work for an organization that sanctions Zoid battles between different groups to test both the adaptable technology and compatibility of the pilots found between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two. A recent exception was made to see if fourteen-year-olds were just as compatible."

"Surely, you could've approached some other fourteen-year-old," Gendo insisted.

"Only half," Samantha responded.

"Half the fourteen-year-old kids here in Japan?" Misato asked, confused.

"Only half of the other fourteen-year-olds alive today in the world were estimated to be slightly better than Shinji Ikari is expected to be," she explained, "and the other half were expected to be worse than he could demonstrate, but Shinji was dead in the center and not a random shot from out of the dark. Still, it's the woman who picked him you should speak with. All I know is that she's looking forward to seeing him later this evening."

-x-

"Oh, my God," Shinji gasped at the sight of the large, red and gold, avian-like robot that perched atop the large hangar's roof.

"Yeah, that's a Fire Phoenix, Shinji," said an older girl behind him, her face painted like a geisha while wearing a blue yukata with a silver chain hanging around her neck. "She's my pet. I'm often told to use her in battles, but I don't."

"Why?"

"Only thirteen of these Fire Phoenixes exist around here, and it isn't for sure if we'll ever see them in the wild again. But that's only half of the reason I don't use her in battles. When I walk away from the Clover Team and live it up, I'm going to take my Fire Phoenix and fly away into the sunset."

"You…you said see them in the wild again? You treat them as though they're living creatures."

"Come inside and I'll show you why."

Shinji followed her into the hangar…and saw a large dinosaur-like robot with what looked like cannons and other weapons on its back and arms with a few cracks in its form.

"Whoa!" He gasped, intimidated.

"It's just a modified Gun Sniper, Shinji," the girl told him. "It belongs to the great-great-great-grandson of Leena Toros, Samantha Toros' son, Drake Toros. But this one's probably got two years left before it passes on."

There it was again. There was that assumption that these giant, animal-shaped robots were alive that Shinji found unlikely. Just what was it that made it alive, that made people consider them to be living creatures when they looked like mechanical constructs that moved around under the will of someone else?

The girl walked over to a large screen on the wall and picked up a remote control, turning it on and displaying an image of a metal sphere surrounded by some cables and giving off a subtle, red glow that appeared to be pulsating every two seconds.

"This is called a Zoid Core, Shinji," she informed him. "These are the result of compressed organs from Zoids of the earlier generations before the modern generations came around. A long time ago, Zoids used to be regular animals like the kind that used to be around where you're from, but evolution transformed the majority of them from organic to techno-organic. So long as the Zoid Core exists and remains intact, the Zoid in question is as alive as you or myself can be considered. It thinks, it feels and moves like we do. But if it ever gets damaged and can't be repaired, the Zoid will die. The mechanical portions transmute to stone in fossilization, and the Zoid can't be piloted ever again. Some think it's easy to get over a Zoid that's died because they can be replaced by getting a new one, and it's possible because science enables us to produce them for a variety of purposes, but it's not easy to forget about the times you spent with them up until their final days. When your Zoid dies, all you have left are the memories of it."

Shinji then turned to look back at the Gun Sniper, seeing that, despite its state of decrepitude, it still had a lot of life left in it.

"How long has it been in service?" He asked her.

"Over one-hundred-twenty years," she answered.

"Wow…"

"Yeah, it's an heirloom that still has some fight in it."

"So…what do I need to do to get one of my own?"

"We need to test your compatibility with our list of Zoids; if everyone could control a Zoid, everyone would have at least one or three. Since you're starting out and we're hoping that you'll be exactly who we need for the Clover Team, your compatibility with a Zoid is a priority. Some people do well with Zoids suited for defense, wearing out an enemy's firepower, while some prefer a Zoid with more offensive force. The Zoid most suited for you, like anyone else, is a mystery until we know for sure. Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes."

-x-

Gendo was furious! His son was supposed to be here in Tokyo-3 piloting the Eva to face the Angels, but instead he was elsewhere, beyond his reach and influence, getting schooled in participating in a lousy tournament sanctioned between the UN and a mysterious organization that couldn't be traced anywhere on the planet, something Fuyutsuki attributed to the fact that Zoids weren't associated with Earth, that there was a sort of pact made between the two organizations several years ago that allows for the revenue the Zoid Battle Commission has for the people that followed the establishment for a long time. How was there access to another world beyond this one in the Milky Way with technology revolving around the use of large, mechanical animals that could be operated like how the Evas needed to be operated? And worse was how could someone from that world want the Third Child on their team just to get him away from here?

"_People pay top dollar to watch the teams compete against one another to be among the best," _the woman had explained to Gendo earlier before she left after disclosing that Shinji would be affiliated with this Clover Team. _"It's been going on for less than two-hundred years, but people enjoy watching the Zoids fight against one another, watching the pilots develop their skills. If Shinji ends up going down the same path as those before him did, he'd be a successful young man…provided his team survives the competition against other teams that will be more experienced and better equipped."_

But so long as Shinji was away from NERV, Gendo couldn't achieve his objective, which he viewed as the only thing that mattered. And because the Angel that attacked after the fifteen-year absence was defeated by the military, NERV was shown up and kept on standby. He was to expect a call later on from the woman that sought out his son, and he knew exactly what to say to her: Return the boy to Japan or face the consequences.

Ring! His phone rang, and he picked up.

"Ikari," he uttered.

To be continued…

A/N: This is the first chapter. I'll get to the second as soon as I can. But what do you think of Shinji piloting a Zoid instead of an Eva? And this is before he even meets his old man!


	2. Reason

Creation began on 07-09-19

Creation ended on 07-12-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: Reason

_Meeting Nico Megumi_

Nico Megumi, the one tasked with building the Clover Team for the Zoid Battle Commission, wasn't anything at all what Shinji had expected her to be when he met her for the first time. While he had the initial impression that she was a woman of exceptional age and insight, dressed in a pantsuit or something similar, with soul-piercing eyes and long hair, that image was blown away when he walked into her office half an hour ago. Nico was an intellectual, that much was true, but Shinji couldn't look up to her without looking down in order to do the former. She was a child prodigy of eight years of age, with long, sea-green hair with a lock of it tied into a braid on her left side, barely able to reach his waist in terms of height, and her eyes made it look as though she was almost blind due to the irises being a pale shade of pink.

"_I know what you're thinking, young man," _she had told him when he saw her sitting at her desk. _"You were expecting someone older."_

"_You're Nico Megumi?"_

"_Bingo."_

"_And you want me on this Zoid team you're forming? I mean, you actually want someone like me on your team?"_

"_That's right, Shinji."_

"_But…why?"_

Nico got out of her chair and walked over to him.

"_There are several reasons for why, Shinji,"_ she had told him. _"To limit the number of reasons to just three main ones, the first reason is to make sure you were unable to be exploited by your father for as long as possible. The second reason is to keep the people of Earth safe from a threat that would've been aggressive had you been there to be exploited by your father. And the third reason…was because you needed to get away from Japan, away from those people. This is Zi, similar to Earth, but on the far side of the Milky Way, and with two moons and no wars for over five-hundred years since the ones for peace and freedom were won. Now, we just have Zoid battles to see who's among the best of the best in terms of skill and strategy and striving to make a living as people's entertainment."_

"_People actually pay to see Zoids fight each other?"_

"_Friendly competitions. Unless it's an unsanctioned competition, everyone has to respect one another, including the underdogs and runner ups. Right now, this team is an underdog because we've yet to make a name for ourselves."_

Nico then pointed over a large pile of papers on her desk and a tablet; it was the information on his parents and NERV Shinji was promised access to for coming here to see her.

"_That's absolutely everything someone at NERV tried to hide,"_ she had told him as she walked back to the desk with him. _"I've examined every inch of the information pulled from their MAGI, and I must say that…it'd be a good thing for you to be here for awhile."_

-x-

_Present_

"…I must say, Mr. Ikari, you have some sort of arrogance in you to do what you do and do what you tried to do," Nico told Gendo over the phone's speaker system in her office.

"Is this some sort of joke?" Shinji heard his father's voice for the first time in years. "I don't have time to waste on a kid."

"I'm the only Nico Megumi that contacted Shinji Ikari. I have him with me right now. Rest assured, he's unharmed; I wouldn't have him hurt."

"If you have him, then I must demand that you return him, immediately. I don't have time to waste on some stupid game. I'm responsible for an agency tasked with protecting the human race! And I need the boy here!"

"Why do you need Shinji there, exactly? What could you possibly need him there for?"

"It's none of your business why!"

"Oh, and after I spent a week accessing your computers and gathering every bit of information for Shinji to browse through as soon as he got here? I think I'm entitled to hear from you why you'd want your only son there in Tokyo-3."

"I want to know, too," said Shinji, making himself heard.

"It's imperative that you come to Tokyo-3, boy," Gendo insisted.

"I have a name, you know."

"Stop playing around and listen to your father!"

"I…I can't do that."

"Don't make me repeat myself."

"You'll have to…because what I found out about…and whatever you might say to contradict what I found out about…will conflict with my choices."

"Right now, you don't have a choice! I'm ordering you to return to Tokyo-3, immediately!"

"Why?"

"You'll be informed later when you return."

Shinji turned to face Nico, who looked back at him.

"Nobody's going to hold you here against your will, Shinji," she told him. "You're free to leave whenever you choose to."

But Shinji didn't make a move towards the door. He returned his gaze to the phone on the desk.

"Would there even be any regret in leaving?" He questioned.

"Regret is relative term for those that actually feel shame because they didn't do much or enough to convince someone of something, whether it was the truth or a convincing lie. But who's lying to you, Shinji? Who is willing to lie to you for as long as takes to persuade you to do their bidding as though you were nothing more than a pawn in some sick game?"

_Who is lying, indeed, _thought Shinji as he sighed again. "Just say why you want me in Tokyo-3 so much. There's no point in withholding such information if you're so insistent upon my presence there."

"I've already told you, you'll be informed later when you return," Gendo told him, clearly losing his patience with them. "Stop wasting valuable time, boy!"

"Nous ne voulons pas que tu partes, Shinji," Nico expressed, speaking a language the boy was unfamiliar with.

"What does that mean," he responded, "what you just said, Ms. Megumi?"

"That was French for…'we don't want you to go'," she translated; she had only met him earlier this evening, and already she liked him.

"How do you say…'I don't want to go'?"

"Je ne veux pas y aller."

"Je ne veux pas y aller?"

"That's good."

"Je ne veux pas y aller."

Shinji approached the phone and picked up the receiver. There was no further point in trying to dredge up anything from his father if he was just going to lie to him about what he had already discovered from the information Nico had given him access to in exchange for coming here to meet with her. A man that wouldn't tell the truth, even for the sake of saving a dying relationship between himself and his only son, was not a man that could be saved from the inevitable that awaited him on the path he had chosen. And if that was the case, then there was nothing left to discuss about, whether it was NERV, these Angels, the Evangelions…or their disgraced family.

"I know you're not going to forgive me for this, Father," he told the man, "but I can't go back to that life I had in Japan. I hated it, honestly. I really did hate it. I don't know how long I'll be here on Zi, but I'd rather be here than over there just because you say for me to be there. Call me a coward if you want, but it's my choice…and you have no say."

"If you don't come back, then all of humanity will…" Gendo stressed, but Shinji hung up on him, surprising Nico.

"Eh-heh-heh!" She chuckled. "I can't believe you just did that, Shinji."

"There was nothing left to say," he told her. "Thank you."

-x-

"Maybe you should've just told him why you wanted him here, Ikari," Fuyutsuki told Gendo as he, Ritsuko and Misato were present in the office.

"If he'd been told beforehand, he might've refused," Ritsuko suspected. "We're trying to gather information on this Nico Megumi, but from what we have discovered so far…is that she's an eight-year-old child prodigy that lives on this Zi, and she's the head of her parents' group, a Zoid company that manufactures repair and modification parts for various models. Why her sudden interest in the Third Child is still a question yet to be answered."

"I don't think any eight-year-old child prodigy is just going to develop a sudden interest in anyone simply because of curiosity," went Misato.

"Fuyutsuki," Gendo uttered, "what else do you know about these…Zoids?"

"They're biomechanical creatures of variable sizes and shapes. They're the only type of fauna associated with Zi of that category to have evolved from the remnants of natural life through trial and error and can be manufactured only on that planet. It wasn't until about forty-four years ago that it was discovered through some sort of accident and a deal was made with the ruling bodies of Zi and the UN. People were permitted to come and go as they please between Zi and Earth, but strict prohibitions were set on the unlawful acquisition and exploitation of any Zoid technology that might be brought here. It was decreed that if people decided to use Zoids to wage war again, Earth would be just another casualty caused by greed and power. The closest we ever get to them being here are miniature models of them so we know what some of these Zoids look like, basic or modified."

"But people here can be taken to Zi?" Misato asked him.

"Not all the time…and not without special consideration from someone with the pull to do so. Maybe NERV's reason for wanting him over here was the reason Ms. Megumi wanted him over there; it was to keep him away from us."

"Can people be linked to Zoids like the Evas?" Ritsuko questioned.

"No, piloting a Zoid is like operating a vehicle, only you're in one that relies on you to make risks when in situations where animal smarts can only do so much. And from what I've learned especially about Zoids…is that you don't get to pick the one you want. You have to be compatible with one…and they have to be the one to pick you, setting the bond between Zoid and pilot."

Gendo was trying to find a way to influence whatever was happening on Zi to force his son to return to Earth and do what he needed him for. To join a group just to compete in a competition between a bunch of other groups to achieve fame and fortune was as irrelevant as his son's wants and needs. If he couldn't have Shinji here piloting the Eva, he would find a way to make his life on Zi unbearable and force him to return to Earth.

-x-

"…How will I know the Zoid best for me will be beneficial for the Clover Team?" Shinji asked Nico as she showed him around the hangar they were living in.

"You'll know when we run simulations," she explained to him as they returned to the section of the hangar where the Zoids would be residing, looking up at the Fire Pheonix they wouldn't be using because Miki Yami, the older girl Shinji had met earlier, who preferred to be addressed by her nickname Geisha, valued it above her other Zoids, which was limited in the single digits up to five. "Can you guess which of these Zoids is mine?"

Nico pointed to three different Zoids that were comprised of a neon-red Blade Liger, a blue Gustav, and an orange Cannon Tortoise.

Shinji pointed to the Cannon Tortoise…and Nico laughed.

"Not bad for your first guess," she told him, "but no. Do you honestly expect anyone to entrust a Cannon Tortoise to an eight-year-old, especially a prodigy, like me?"

"You seem responsible enough to handle a Zoid like that," he stated his opinion.

"Thank you, but my father's a stickler for his little girl not to get inside a combative Zoid until she was of legal age. So when I was six, he got me the Gustav. Considered to be the only Zoid model in existence not intended for combat situations. I mostly use it just to travel to and from nearby towns to pick up stuff. Other times, I like to tinker with it a little."

"What type of Zoid is it? It…looks like a bug?"

"Some say that it's descended from a woodlouse while others consider it a ladybug. I believe it's the latter over the former."

"A ladybug?"

"A rather pretty insect no bigger than small pebble, black with spots on its red wing casings."

"That is beautiful."

"You've never seen one before?"

"Second Impact had wiped out a lot of different animals and plants on Earth. It's rare just to see a stray cat on the street."

"That's awful. Zoids are the primary fauna here, but we still have modern-day fauna identical to your world here. Perhaps when we get involved in the battles to rank up, we should go to the zoo and see the animals that don't exist on Earth, anymore."

"I'd like that, Ms. Megumi."

"Please, call me Nico. Nobody calls me Ms. Megumi, except for my mother."

-x-

"Ikari," went SEELE 01 to Gendo during their unscheduled meeting regarding the Third Angel incident that ended with the military defeating it, "surely, you can keep track of your own personnel without causing a problem. How was it that who you had expected to arrive that day…ended up on Zi?"

"He was picked up by an unknown party that removed him from the country and planet," Gendo explained. "A girl by the name of Nico Megumi has…apparently recruited him for a Zoid team to participate in a tournament of sorts there."

"So, you mean to say that…you stood by as your son, whom you haven't seen or spoken to in years, whom you expected to pilot the Eva, was poached by a girl you've never met, sent light years away from here to the other side of the Milky Way, and you've been unable to retrieve him?" SEELE 05 asked him. "Exactly, how do you intend to resolve this matter? It is not illegal for the Zoid Battle Commission to select new potentials from Earth to build new teams to reinvigorate their battle revenue, but you clearly have a situation if the people behind it are going to pick people like your own son and convince him to join. You even received a call from the girl and your son was with her…and he refused to return and you even refused to explain the situation to him, and in addition, Ms. Megumi had access to information on NERV that she disclosed to your son, the same information he was not given by you when you sent for him to be brought here to pilot the Eva in place of one of your pilots that was already available. How do you suppose that she was able to obtain such information and provide it for the Third Child?"

"We have reason to suspect the MAGI was secretly hacked and information was copied and transferred to Ms. Megumi on Zi," Gendo suggested. "We're currently feeding disinformation through the MAGI to protect it against future attacks."

"But if the information the boy was given was before you found out about the hack, then it was unedited, which would mean nothing from the research behind the Evangelions to the Human Instrumentality Project wasn't doctored against comprehension," SEELE 10 reminded him, "and if it was only so that the boy was given access to it, it would be moot to feed the MAGI with disinformation now. But why, of all people in Japan, and the world itself, would she seek out your son?"

"That I can't say for certain. But the Megumi girl is intent upon keeping the Third Child on Zi, out of NERV's reach and influence."

"Is she the one intent on keeping your son away from NERV…or has your son rejected you outright, Ikari?" SEELE 06 asked, making no hint that it was possible that the Third Child, due to a complete lack of a relationship with his father and the impossibility of establishing one, had chosen to reject the very idea of being anywhere near him or NERV.

"NERV is treating this as a kidnapping, regardless of whether or not the Third Child went willingly to Zi," Gendo informed them.

-x-

Zoid teams varied in numbers, ranging anywhere from an entire organization to ten or four or even just soloists that didn't feel like sharing in on the spoils of the game, and Shinji was to be part of a four-person team Nico was to put together. There were already three members, including himself, leaving room for one more person to full their last slot.

"There's one person I have in mind," Nico informed Shinji as she showed him to his quarters in the hangar. "They used to be in a previous Zoid team that didn't make it past the preliminary rounds of the previous Royal Cup. I've been trying to get in touch with them, but they're not answering my messages or responding to missed calls."

"Are they a veteran Zoid fighter?"

"No, but they should be interested in another shot of getting to the Royal Cup."

Not a veteran, but someone that had some experience battling other Zoid fighters. This person might've even had a Zoid of their own that was suited for combat.

"Well, I look forward to meeting them," Shinji expressed as he looked out a window that showed the vast, canyon-like terrain that was part of the rural areas the battles were permitted to be fought in.

"Likewise," Nico added, and she walked to the door. "Try to get some rest. You have a big day tomorrow. We gotta find the Zoid best suited for you."

"Thank you again."

"You're welcome."

Then, left alone in his quarters, Shinji sighed as he looked out the window; he found out the reason to why his father wanted him in Tokyo-3 and made a conscious decision to refuse the man that was willing to lie and use him as an expendable pawn in some twisted agenda where his feelings were completely disregarded. It wasn't everyday you found out about your old man wanting nothing to do with you and willing to force you to operate a giant cybernetic organism that connected to your nervous system, causing you to feel whatever damage it sustained from facing giant monsters that wouldn't appear for fifteen years after a devastation that was deliberately caused by people to maim the planet…just to achieve a much worse ambition that had nobody's best interests at heart…or that your own parents were directly involved in the ambition and were going to exploit you. All the information Nico had given him, most of which his father would've kept from him, everything that wouldn't have made any sense to him until it was too late for him to turn away and forget any of this madness had ever happened. One of the only ways to avoid that madness from ever happening would be to remove certain factors that played significant roles in the agenda made by the people that wanted it to happen…and one of the factors was Shinji himself being in Tokyo-3 where his father and NERV had total dominion over his life and how it was lived; simply removing him from the equation would leave NERV powerless to carry out their role in the ugliness of that ambition…and the people that lived in Tokyo-3 would live to see another day of life.

"_So, I'd be running away from him by being here for the time being?" _Shinji had asked Nico when he found out about what his parents were up to at NERV.

"_Is it truly running away if you know the truth and want nothing to do with deciding people's fate?" _Nico had countered his question with one of her own. _"Also, it's hard to run away when you have nowhere to run to. People can run, but if they have no destination, they're just running without a course. And…you didn't run here to Zi, Shinji. You were given a choice, an opportunity, to escape your undesired role in your parents' scheme. You could've declined, you could've been in an accident that might've killed you or worse. But instead, you chose to come here to hear me out, to become part of something that isn't a life-threatening situation…and I'm grateful to you for doing so."_

So, here he was, on a planet on the other side of the Milky Way, light years away from Earth, from NERV, his father, the so-called Angels that he never saw, and whatever other agendas that existed which involved exploiting him.

_I'd probably rather be safer here than in Japan, _he thought as he sat on his bed. _Yeah, I'm a lot safer here than I probably ever could've been in Japan._

-x-

"…I heard the JSSDF was reveling in their victory against the Angel," Ritsuko informed Gendo while they were looking at the damaged Unit-00, partially trapped in Bakelite. "How was Rei today?"

"She'll be able to work again in thirty days," he explained, "by then, we'll be ready to re-activate Unit-00. We'll also have Unit-02 and the Second Child."

"And what of the Third Child?"

"The matter regarding him will be resolved in due time."

Ritsuko figured it was too soon to think that Gendo would give up on his own son; this man was simply not the type to admit defeat.

"What if the people he's with refuse to surrender him?" She suggested. "Or he makes his opinion heard that he refuses to have anything to do with NERV?"

"There's no one else who can pilot the Evas," he reasoned. "As long as they survive, that is what I'll have them do. And as long as he is required, NERV will possess him."

"With no regard to what he may want?"

-x-

Deep in the hangar of the in-progress Clover Team, a deep, growling noise was made, awakening Shinji from his late-night slumber.

"Hmm?" He went, still drowsy. "What was… What was that?"

But he fell back to sleep, not hearing the growling noise again.

To be continued…

A/N: Expect to see the Zoid Shinji will be operating along with the fourth member of the Clover Team. What do you think so far? It's gotta have more to do with Zoids than Angels, right?


	3. Rogue

Creation began on 07-12-19

Creation ended on 07-15-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: Rogue

The list of Zoids was over two-hundred, each one of a different species, ranging from giant, mechanical mammalian models to members of the prehistoric eras, and Shinji was being made to pilot a handful of them in their most basic forms through simulations.

"Whoa!" He gasped, getting pummeled by three virtual Lightning Saixes while operating a Warshark, a Zoid that could operate on the ground as well as it could underwater. "I don't think I'm a Warshark person!"

Outside the simulation room, observing him, Nico had to agree with Shinji for the eighth time. Only eight different tests and each one had Shinji failing because he didn't fit with the Zoid he was using. It was a miracle that he lasted this long in the simulations, though; most would've quit after five different scenarios and Zoids. But Shinji kept going, kept trying to find compatibility with each Zoid in the global database, even through the most difficult of situations he was finding himself in.

"Let's give a modified Leoblaze a try," she suggested, patient with his lack of success and development in each scenario.

"Okay," he agreed with her, wanting so much to find the right Zoid for himself.

-x-

Standing outside in front of the Clover Team's hangar, a woman in her late-teens with long, flowing, lavender-colored hair that seemed to shine like light every now and then, dressed in a skintight outfit of blue and white with several pouches surrounding her waist and ankles.

"I don't know why this girl would want me on her team," she uttered to herself as she walked to the front door. "The last team I was with lost before we even made it to the Royal Cup."

-x-

"…How's he doing?" Drake Toros, an older teen of eighteen years, wearing tan khakis and a red shirt with the words _"WE LOVE ZOIDS" _written its front in black, with glossy, red hair and purple eyes, asked the woman wearing a blue yukata that Shinji had met the previous day when he arrived.

"Thirty simulations straight," the woman revealed, whose face was no longer painted up like a geisha's, revealing a dark-skinned visage with blue eyes and shoulder-length black hair. "Thirty failed attempts at finding compatibility with a Zoid, including ten modified ones."

"Geez, that's harsh. I would've given up after ten tries. Which ones did he try in the simulations, a Gun Sniper? Command Wolf? Pteras, even?"

"He even tried an Iron Kong and Deadly Kong, but neither showed him being compatible with them. Even with the simplest setting of each combat scenario and basic weaponry, Shinji isn't making this easy for Ms. Megumi to find the best Zoid for him, despite his own efforts to make the Zoids work for him."

"A man that can't sync with a Zoid," they both heard a woman say behind them in the hallway, and they turned around to find one in a skintight outfit with long hair standing in front of them. "That's a major insult to people that love Zoids on Zi."

"How'd you get in here?" The yukata-wearing woman demanded.

"Invited by your boss," the other woman answered. "I was surprised that she sought me out."

"She knows you by reputation," Drake explained, "and the fact that you were on a previous Zoid team last year that didn't make it to the championship. Maybe this time, things will be different for you."

"That's if I join this team, you mean? If you know who I am, then you know why I left the previous team."

"Whatever your reasons are for being called the so-called 'Vixen Warrior' are entirely your own," the woman in the yukata expressed. "We're still putting this team together."

Suddenly, the door to the simulation room opened and out came Shinji and Nico, the former looking disappointed while the latter confident that they would get results in due time.

"A little girl in charge of a Zoid team," they heard the invitee utter to them, getting their attention. "The Zoid Battle Commission must be trying something new this year."

"Valerie Axiom," Nico greeted the woman. "I see you've already met Drake Toros and Geisha. This is Shinji Ikari."

Shinji bowed his head to the woman, Valerie.

"Heh, a kid whose team is comprised of kids from different backgrounds," she stated. "It will be a miracle for you to achieve just one victory in the preliminary rounds. But why seek me out? Surely, you must know that I'm not very…impressive."

"It's not your past that made me seek you out, Ms. Axiom," Nico explained. "You're a good Zoid pilot, no run-ins with authority, willing to work with others, and you're looking to prove yourself. Are you up to joining my little band of…social misfits?"

Valerie looked at her and the three teens she was building into a team…and sighed.

"Just…don't mess with my Zoid or poke fun at my habits," she told them.

"Your habits can't be any worse than mine," said Geisha to her.

"You like to wear Japanese clothing and immersing yourself in their culture because you don't like your own very much," Drake uttered. "I don't like being labeled a modification fanatic just because I'm using the same Gun Sniper my grandmother used back in her day. We all have our issues…and skeletons in our closets we don't like to discuss with people."

"I don't want to be exploited by my father in some sick goal he has for me," Shinji shared with them. "There, I said it."

Valerie chuckled and asked, "Your old man's a maniac?"

"In a way, he is…if not worse," he answered.

"It's always the same, no matter which planet you're on. Whether you're an earthling or a Zoidian, we have the same issues with our predecessors. There's no such thing as a perfect parent anywhere."

"You got that right."

-x-

"Nico Megumi," went Fuyutsuki as he read the file on the little girl that hacked the MAGI for their information and gave it to Shinji when she met him on Zi. "She's the only daughter of Faye Megumi and Burt Kaizer. Apparently, her parents are going through a divorce that's taking them a while and they don't want to drag her into their drama, so she's taking time away from her mother's to practice Zoid team construction and management. A child prodigy with an advanced degree in Zoids, her priorities as a team manager is to ensure the team members and their Zoids are in top form and that they get along. Another part of the job when recruiting new members that don't have Zoids of their own is to test their compatibility with them to see which one is the best one to use. With Zoidians, the people that live on Zi, it's not as simple, but with earthlings, it's more challenging because they've never been around Zoids as much as Zoidians have."

"So, even if Shinji did join a Zoid team, it'd be a while before finding the right Zoid for him to use," said Ritsuko, as she was also evaluating the information they had on Nico. "Are we certain that Zoids can't sync with people like the Evangelion?"

"Zoid technology prohibits the use of linking people and Zoids together through any body system. The consequences of any group found doing such would be severe."

"So long as the boy can't be paired with these mechanical abominations," Gendo expressed as he looked at three pictures on select Zoids on his desk in his office, "he is useless to the girl."

"But if the girl has a schedule and a deadline to meet, she'll likely begin trying to test him with various models to find the one properly suited to his needs."

"How many Zoid models are there?" Ritsuko asked.

"There are over two-hundred, ranging from reptilian to mammalian. Regular people from Earth take longer to obtain a Zoid than Zoidians, people from Zi. But their technology is vastly improved so that they can go through simulations faster than down here, depending on the person going through the simulations."

-x-

"I apologize if it's taking longer than expected to find the right Zoid for me, Nico," said Shinji to the girl as they walked through the hangar's open space for the Zoids.

"Don't be," Nico responded. "As the manager, making sure the newbies have the correct Zoids compatible to them comes with the job. I'm not expecting anything except your best when out there on the battlefield against the other Zoid teams when we get there. So, we have thirty-five tries and thirty-five failures. So long as you're still willing to try to find the right Zoid, I'm willing to help you until we find it, whatever it is."

"Thank you."

With Valerie now a member of the Clover Team, the latest Zoid in the hangar was a modified Geno Saurer, different from its basic design; the majority of its guns, including the one of its head, had been removed and replaced with reinforced armor of the blue coloration and a pair of Buster Claws. It stood next to the antique Gun Sniper and Geisha's Fire Phoenix.

"Why do you think Ms. Axiom's Geno Saurer was modified down?" Shinji asked Nico.

"Power, but in a different variation," she suggested. "Its most powerful weapon is its Charged Particle Gun, located in its mouth. It's so powerful that it requires anchors on its feet in order to keep it in place to prevent recoiling."

"Whoa… That sounds like a very dangerous weapon to put into a Zoid."

"It's a heavily-restricted weapon, legal only in the Zoid battles. Using it anywhere else without a justifiable reason guarantees you a fifteen-year prison sentence or suspension from future Zoid competitions. Nobody today wants to risk either penalty due to possessing such a weapon in their Zoid. We can trust Valerie not to use it anywhere except on the battlefield against the enemy team."

"Okay. Just making sure that…"

Shinji's attention was relocated from the conversation regarding Valerie's Geno Saurer as his eyes were directed to a Zoid he hadn't noticed before in the obscured section of the hangar, barely illuminated because of the dim lighting on the ceiling. It looked like one of the liger-type Zoids, but something about it gave it a mysterious appeal, with its armor being predominantly purple with a green trim at the edges of its legs.

"What's that Zoid over there?" He asked, pointing to it.

"Oh, you mean this old Zoid here?" Nico responded. "My mother calls it Liger Rogue."

"Liger…Rogue?"

"My parents bought it off a dealer before I was born. The guy couldn't get it to work with him when he had it, so he sold it for half the price of an Elephander. At first, my father felt like it was just a modified Blade Liger, but its configuration matches no other liger in the Zoid database, modified or basic. Even he couldn't pilot it. I kept wondering why they didn't just get rid of it if they couldn't use it, but it might just be a rare Zoid. But because nobody can pilot it, that makes figuring out its abilities, if it even has any, difficult to ascertain. Even repair, modification and maintenance work isn't an option because it's never seen combat."

"It looks like a combative Zoid."

"Maybe, but that's only in terms of its appearance. A Zoid that can't be used has no value to a Zoid team, different from a Zoid that one doesn't want to use, like Geisha's Fire Phoenix."

Nico walked away, but Shinji stood there, looking at Liger Rogue a while longer. There was just something about it that made him want to observe it for some reason.

"Liger Rogue," he repeated.

-x-

"It's only been a day-and-a-half since your son relocated to Zi," Fuyutsuki reminded Gendo. "It's not like NERV even has any contacts there that can keep tabs on him."

"I'm working on that," Gendo responded; his intention was to send a handful of people to Zi with the orders to monitor the Third Child and then find an opportunity to capture him and bring him back to Earth where he could be forced to pilot the Eva.

"That might be easier said than done, Ikari. Any Zoid team that has been formed with the set number of people to participate in the battles is recognized by the Zoid Battle Commission, for better or for worse. Each team is registered and each team member is entitled a chance to win the status of Class S and prize money. The Royal Cup used to be held once every four years, but now it's every year. The only restriction is that the Zoid participants that won the previous year aren't permitted to participate the following year. If the team Shinji's on wins the Royal Cup, even if he only participated a handful of times, he'd still be the equivalent of a small billionaire."

"These Zoids and this tournament to see which team makes it to the top is irrelevant to what we're doing here. NERV exists to defeat the Angels, and to do that, we need pilots for the Evas."

-x-

_That's strange, _thought Shinji as he left his room and ventured to the hangar to look at the Zoids. _Is it…is it looking at me?_

Liger Rogue, unlike the other Zoids present in the hangar, seemed to give the impression of being able to watch you, despite not moving an inch. Not even Geisha's Fire Phoenix gave that impression, and it was capable of independent motion because she wasn't using it in battle.

Shinji then walked towards Geisha's combat Zoid that she intended on using against other Zoid teams, a customized Storm Sworder with blue highlights. He had to count the list of Zoids this place had just to keep from forgetting; so far, there were Geisha's Fire Phoenix and Storm Sworder, Drake's Gun Sniper, Valerie's Geno Saurer, Nico's Gustav and the Liger Rogue. While there was the belief that they had a Whale King around for longer distances, Shinji had yet to see it, and as far as he knew, there was no Hover Cargo, either.

"Why is it so hard for me to pilot any Zoid in a simulation?" He asked himself aloud as he walked over to Valerie's Geno Saurer.

"Rrraurgh!" He heard a growling sound, and turned to look at Liger Rogue.

It still gave the impression that it was looking at Shinji, despite never moving…until he saw the Zoid's head tilt down.

"Haarh!" Geisha's Fire Phoenix went, surprising Shinji because he thought it was asleep, spreading its wings. "Haarh!"

"Rrraaurgh!" Rogue growled, and part of its head opened up.

"Haaaurgh!" Fire Phoenix continued, looking at Shinji, and then making a pointing gesture with its left wing, at Rogue.

"What?" Shinji questioned, confused, looking at Rogue. "You… I'm supposed to get inside Rogue's cockpit?"

"Haaaurgh!" Fire Phoenix shrieked, now gesturing with its head towards Rogue.

These two Zoids probably engaged in conversation when nobody else was around and this was the first Shinji was seeing of Zoid communication between two different Zoids. He slowly walked towards the liger and watched as it lowered itself to give the boy easier access to the cockpit. Its interior was similar to the one used in the simulator, sleek with straps (Shinji had been informed by Nico that sometime after her parents had bought the Zoid, her father complained about the previous design of the seat using a mechanical harness instead of the models utilized by most other Zoids that made it easier for the pilots to function, so they had it swapped out for a compatible model), even the seat itself looked like it was made for a luxury vehicle and not a war machine.

"Nice," he expressed, climbing into the cockpit and sitting down. "This actually feels good."

Rogue closed up and several screens popped up in front of Shinji, giving him a visual of the world outside the Zoid.

"Scanning," a female voice uttered as green light shined around Shinji as the screens were reduced to just three, allowing Shinji a view of everything on his left, right and front. "Scanning… Initiate reconfiguration for new user data interface. Welcome to the Liger Rogue, Shinji Ikari. Are you ready to begin?"

Shinji was surprised to hear the voice inside the cockpit ask him such a question.

"Uh, yes, please," he answered, and Rogue rose back up to its full height of fifteen meters. "Whoa… I'm inside an actual Zoid."

Rogue then moved forward, walking towards the hangar door.

"Authorizing departure," the voice uttered again, and the hangar door rose up, letting the cold air inside the building. "Take off in three…two…"

"Huh?!" Shinji went, and then Rogue ran out of the hangar. "Aaaahh!"

The Zoid was moving at an accelerated pace that it had covered forty kilometers and was still running, as if getting a feel for the terrain and adjusting to its new user.

"This is so not like in the simulator!" Shinji gasped, gripping the control handles on his left and right side. "Where are we going, Rogue?!"

To be continued…

A/N: There you have it! Shinji has a Zoid of his own, but has to handle the immense power it displays before he can be a true member of the Clover Team. And how do you suppose everyone is going to react upon waking up to find that both he and Liger Rogue aren't at the hangar?


	4. The Clover Team Unites

Creation began on 07-17-19

Creation ended on 08-22-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: The Clover Team Unites

Vacating her personal quarters, Nico yawns as she walks down the hall to the kitchen area for some breakfast as the new day began.

"Nico, have you seen Shinji?" Geisha asked as she ran down the opposite end of the hall to her.

"No," she answered. "I just got up. Why?"

"Drake says he's not here and Valerie looked everywhere in the hangar. Not only that, but the front of the hangar was open and the Liger Rogue is missing."

"What?!"

-x-

"…I hear that the Second Child and Unit-02 will be arriving here by the end of the week," Ritsuko informed Misato the next day at NERV.

"Will things get any easier for NERV after they're here?" Misato asked her.

"Not most likely. Commander Ikari will still want the Third Child here, so he's trying to get in contact with Ms. Megumi's parents to convince them that their daughter selecting him to be part of her Zoid team was an error and correct it."

"What are the chances of the girl's parents actually considering her choice of Shinji being a mistake?"

"Not good. I'd say if the girl's parents permitted her to be a Zoid team manager and build her own team, then they must trust her judgment to be of sound mind and body, despite being eight years old."

"And what are the chances that her parents helped her pick the members of her team?"

"They're fifty-fifty, at best on that. Child prodigies aren't like regular children; they're smarter and less likely to fit in with other children their age."

"Something tells me that this Megumi girl isn't your run-of-the-mill child and may not be as cooperative with NERV as Commander Ikari would demand of her. And something tells me that Shinji won't be as cooperative with us, either if he found out from the girl why his father wanted him here."

"Well, Commander Ikari isn't the most pleasant person to work with. One could say that his son is like him…in a sense."

"His son refused him simply because he said he hated his life here in Japan…and because his father wouldn't tell him why he wanted him here. I mean, he could've told him over the long-distance call, told him of the situation we were in, but instead of doing so, the guy stressed that he needed to be here before he could be informed. He probably just didn't want for Shinji to refuse him, but in the end, Shinji did refuse him."

"We really didn't have time to explain everything to him. And what could he possibly see in participating in Zoid battles? Sure, he'd be a part of the entertainment business for those that enjoy robot matches and receiving a large sum of cash if his team wins this Royal Cup, but what would be his motivation for staying there?"

"Just being there, away from his father, away from his aunt and uncle, and away from Japan would be his reason."

-x-

"Aaahh! Who gonna pray for me?! Who gonna take my pain for me?! Or save my soul for me?!" Shinji yelled as Liger Rogue continued to run across the vast canyon, seeing song lyrics displayed on the screen in front of him. "Oh, Liger Rogue, please…STOP!"

Then…the Zoid ceased running and came to a halt…right in front of a cliff, and basked in the sunlight.

"Rrrraurgh!" Liger Rogue growled as it sat down.

"Thank you," Shinji praised the Zoid, looking out at the vast canyon in front of them. "Oh, man… Where are we?"

Beep! One of the buttons on his left side lit up.

"Incoming transmission from Clover Team HQ," the female voice informed, and Shinji pressed the button to answer.

A second screen popped up and revealed Nico's face.

"Shinji, are you alright?" She asked him.

"Yes, I'm fine," he answered. "A little lost, but fine."

"Are you inside the Liger Rogue?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am."

"How did you get inside it? It hasn't let anyone else inside it after my parents had the cockpit altered."

"It…let me in."

"Really? I mean, you…you didn't try to get in yourself?"

"No. Geisha's Fire Phoenix gestured for me to climb into Rogue's cockpit…and Rogue opened up, so I climbed in."

"It sounds like Rogue took you out joyriding. You two are about five-hundred miles from the hangar. Hold on a moment, I need to check something with the liger's internal systems."

Shinji waited, wondering if there was a problem before anything else could be settled.

"Whoa," Nico went, "Shinji, it says here that…Liger Rogue registered you as its pilot."

"It…it scanned me after it closed up and ran out of the hangar," he explained. "I didn't…press any buttons or flip any switches or anything."

"No, you wouldn't have needed to. I never imagined the most fickle of Zoids would choose you of all people, though. Sometimes, people don't get to choose their Zoid. The Zoid chooses them. For whatever reason, this, more or less, means that this Zoid belongs to you now, Shinji."

"I'm sorry," he apologized to her.

"Don't be," she told him. "It's part of my job to find you the best Zoid possible. I just didn't think that the best one would end up being the one nobody else could use because of its fickleness. You must have some special quality that attracted Liger Rogue to you; otherwise, it wouldn't have chosen you."

Shinji then heard a second beep on Nico's end, seeing her head turn to the right.

"It looks like the Clover Team was assembled just in time, too," she explained. "We've been challenged by a veteran Zoid team. The Triad Team, a trio of Zoid pilots that all use Elephanders, heavyweight hitters. They're not that far from where you are right now. Are you up for your first match?"

"Yes. I'll learn on the go."

"I look forward to seeing you there."

-x-

"…Well, as you're the young man's father and the head of a paramilitary agency under the control of the United Nations," said the voice of Burt Kaizer to Gendo over the phone, "I'd be inclined to agree with you that your son should be close by. But as much as I could tell my daughter that her selecting this Shinji Ikari was a big mistake…I'm afraid I'm not going to do that, even for you."

"What? What do you mean by you're not going to do it?" Gendo asked, losing his patience with this man that took half an hour to get in contact with.

"That's exactly what I said," the man responded over the phone. "I helped her look over the boy's file personally, and it was a complete wreck. It's no wonder she decided to pick him over countless other boys his age to see if he'd be interested in joining her team. If he accepted, then that makes him her responsibility as the Zoid team manager. I'm not going to tell her to send him back to Earth to pilot a monstrosity that doesn't work for more than a few minutes and causes intense mental instability because it connects with your nervous system."

"This isn't a game!" Gendo yelled. "We're facing a global crisis that threatens the human race, and it is a necessity that the boy be sent back here! By force, if need be!"

"Heh, you say global crisis, I say reckless child endangerment. Zoid battles aren't as dangerous as they appear to be, not all that different from your basic contact sports. They're just games that anyone can enjoy and profit off of if they feel like gambling. And one of the aspects that keep it interesting is bringing in new people and Zoids to form teams and participate in the sanctioned battles to show their potential. I would say that your son is in safe hands with my daughter. I mean, it's not like you have any plans of reconciliation with him, and if he knows why you wanted him to come to this Tokyo-3 city so much after more than ten years of estrangement, I don't really blame him for wanting to stay away."

"So, you'd encourage the boy to run away from something that only he can do?"

"Is it truly running if the person has nowhere to run to? In order to truly run away, one must have someplace to run to, whether it's to a shelter for the homeless or a derelict warehouse where people go to make whoopee. And Shinji Ikari, due to his circumstances, what with all his relatives, including you yourself, didn't have anywhere to run away to before Nico requested that he come see her on Zi. You can't get any further away from your problems than on the other side of the Milky Way. Why do you care about him so much now? You couldn't be bothered with telling him the truth about why you wanted him in that city. It's hard to imagine why he'd even want to go back to Earth just yet. You could try the All-for-One Risk Gamble, a major risk on the Zoid battles."

"And what is that?"

"You bet on the Zoid team that opposes the one your son is on, make sure that team knows who you are and why you want the enemy team to lose. A Zoid team is only permitted five losses before their class rank drops to the class beneath the current one they're in. The team your son is on also has to be made aware of the gamble so that they know what's at stake and are able to put up a fighting chance to keep things as they are. If your son can be defeated by a Zoid team representing you, five consecutive times, and his team's class rank goes down, then he'd have no choice but to return to Earth."

Put quite simply, Gendo would need a Zoid team (or a number of teams) to represent NERV, cause the Third Child's team to lose five times in a row in order to drop a rank, and once that was accomplished, the boy would have no other choice but to return to Earth and pilot the Eva for them against the Angels. It was a heavy risk with multiple factors from the layout of the battlefield, the type of Zoids permitted, the range and degree of weapons allowed…to the pilots themselves and their strategies, none of which Gendo had no control over. But if it enabled him to affect his son's life over there, then he had to ensure that it was one of difficulty in order to break him.

"…But it's not like anyone can be bested five times straight," Burt Kaizer told him. "Even newbies learn from their mistakes in the first battle, and if your son has been learning from my daughter on how to operate a Zoid and to test his compatibility with them, then it's likely he's going to become a skilled Zoid pilot in due time."

"You actually believe that?" Gendo asked him.

"How else can I believe in my own daughter's ability to turn a small number of young men and women that have no strong ties to anyone into a team that cooperates well enough to make it to the top? If I can't believe in my own child, how can I believe in anyone else's? Do you believe in your son? Do you believe that he can escape from the pain of his past and take hold of his future…and live without the people that gave it no sense of acceptance or hope?"

"I have no time for such beliefs."

"Then you'll be on the receiving end of more losses than you can possibly tolerate."

Then the guy hung up on Gendo, leaving the leader of NERV to ponder if he'd just been threatened by a Zoidian that was light years away from Earth. But the information he got regarding the Zoid battles and how to affect them to a degree would suffice. All he needed to do was exploit the Zoid teams that would oppose the one his son was on, and there were bound to be dozens of them where the members were far more skilled than them if they were starting out.

-x-

"…Okay, ladies," Nico told Geisha and Valerie as they used her Gustav to carry the Geno Saurer and an empty trailer across the terrain to the battlefield, "you two and Shinji are going up against the Triad Team. They use Elephanders for their overwhelming firepower and heavy armor."

"My Geno Saurer eats Elephanders for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Valerie told the girl, looking out the side of the Gustav and noticing that they were going quite fast for a Zoid that could only move go so far due to pulling two trailers behind it, and one of them had her Geno Saurer on it. "Has this Gustav been heavily modified, Ms. Megumi?"

"Oh, you've noticed?" Nico went. "My mother's doing. She had my baby updated to move faster by installing new hardware that uses an aggressive nitrous system to boost the speed. Put quite simply, my Gustav is the fastest model currently in use right now."

"A nitrous-fueled Gustav?" Geisha questioned from within her Storm Sworder. "I bet without the trailers, you could race a Shadow Fox down a race track."

"Thank you, Geisha, but unlikely. I just get to where I need to go at a faster pace…and here we all."

The Gustav stopped and Nico pointed up towards the sky, just as something crashed into the ground a few feet away. Opening up the cockpit, Nico let Valerie out to get to her Geno Saurer and get ready for the battle as the Judge for it rose from the impact crater to make its presence known.

"The area within a thirty-mile radius is a designated Zoid battlefield," the robotic being announced, just as the Triad Team's Elephanders arrived from a distance. "This zone is now restricted. Only competitors and personnel have authorized entry. All others must leave the area at once."

Nico revealed her Gustav and checked the layout of the designated battlefield; wherever the Judge appeared, all the land that spanned thirty miles on all sides were to be used for the battle between the two teams. Because the desert terrain spanned eighty miles from the nearest stretch of civilization still inhabited by Zoidians, this thirty-mile sand patch was their playground.

"Grr!" Valerie's Geno Saurer growled as it activated and got off the trailer.

"Any sign of Shinji yet?" Valerie asked Nico and Geisha.

"I've spotted him," responded Geisha, sending a heads-up-display to them showing that Shinji and Liger Rogue were approaching their location. "He's moving like those bullet trains do."

"You hear that, Shinji?" Nico's voice uttered over the intercom. "You and Liger Rogue are thirty seconds from where my Gustav and Valerie's Geno Saurer are."

"I know," they heard Shinji's voice in response. "I can see Valerie's Geno Saurer."

"I can see Liger Rogue," Valerie's voice revealed, and Nico saw the purplish blur as it came to a halt. "Welcome to the first battle of the Clover Team, Shinji."

-x-

"…Hey, we're getting a pirate broadcast from Zi," said one of the NERV personnel to her friends as she showed her tablet to them. "Oh, man, it's the first battle of the new season."

As he walked down the hall, Gendo overheard this and wondered just how many people in NERV knew about Zoids.

"What the…" He heard a man express. "This roster of people on the two teams. One of them is named Ikari, Shinji. Doesn't the commander here have a son by that name?"

"Yeah, he does," went another woman in the hall, "but he never showed up here when the Angel attacked. I mean, he was expected to show up, but never did. It must be him on a Zoid team. The Clover Team. Check out the Zoid he's using. Is that a Shield Liger?"

"No, the shape isn't right," said another man to her. "I've never seen a Zoid like that before. It looks almost like…Evangelion Unit-01, but on four legs."

Gendo then approached the group and demanded that they show him the broadcast of the Zoid battle.

"Battlefield set up," they heard the robotic Judge announce. "The Clover Team versus the Triad Team. Battle Mode Zero-Nine-Eight-Two. Ready… Fight!"

"It's on now," the woman expressed as the battle began, her tablet displaying the three Elephanders charging as fast as their heavyset bodies would allow. "Three Elephanders against a Storm Sworder, a modified Geno Saurer, and a…something Zoid that nobody's seen before."

Indeed, the Zoid in question had a slight resemblance to Unit-01 in terms of its color scheme, if not slightly rusted to a degree, but with very little information on it, there was no telling what it was or what it was capable of.

"Oh, wait, we're getting an update on the mystery Zoid," a man said as he held out another tablet. "They're calling it Liger Rogue? Well, it's definitely nothing like a Shield Liger or a Blade Liger. I don't think anyone's seen a Zoid like this before…and it's registered to Shinji Ikari. So, this is his Zoid while he's affiliated with this up and coming Zoid team? It must cost more than the Eva."

This put a frown on Gendo's face and a new wrinkle to his agenda.

-x-

It was the first battle for the Clover Team, and Shinji was keeping his distance due to one crucial problem he had with Liger Rogue: He didn't know what kind of weapons it had at its disposal, only knowing firsthand that it was quite fast for a Zoid.

"Nico, does Liger Rogue have a weapons inventory I can call up?" He asked Nico over the intercom, trying to avoid one of the Elephanders that came after him.

"Yes, you need to tell it to bring up its weapons display list," her voice responded. "It should have a voice-actuated system installed."

"A voice what?"

"Voice-actuated, meaning your voice is the key to the weapons inventory. Say your Zoid's name and what you want it to do for you, and based on how you voice your request, it will do it."

"Uh, Liger Rogue, show me weapons list, please?" Shinji tried saying, and a display list popped up on the screen, showing a blueprint of the Zoid and where its weapons resided. "Okay, we have a high-density beam gun at the end of the tail, a triple-barreled cannon under the head, a double-barreled beam cannon on the back and an energy claw attack on the front legs. Not a bad selection for a Zoid that has never been in combat. Let's put them to good use."

Memorizing the switches and buttons for each weapon, Shinji grabbed the primary controls and activated the double-barreled beam cannon on Liger Rogue's back.

"Let's go, Rogue!" He shouted, his eyes set on the Elephander on the far left of the battlefield.

"Rrrraaurgh!" Rogue roared and the beam cannon rose up on its back and unleashed a barrage of fury on the enemy Zoid.

"Shinji, for now, just keep your distance and bring on the rain," Nico instructed him, "but if you see an opening to disable one of them up close, you take it."

"Copy that," Shinji responded, circling the Elephander as Rogue kept firing at it, intending to cause damage to the joints, just enough to disable its mobility.

As he evaded his Elephander's attacks, Geisha's Storm Sworder continued to swoop down and rain heavy fire on one of the other two while Valerie faced down hers.

"Valerie Axiom," the young woman heard the guy inside the Elephander through her intercom, "I heard you were picked up by a little girl to join her pack of wimps. I never thought anyone would be desperate enough to want you as part of their Zoid team, especially a small prodigy. Does she know about your shameful past?"

"Dracob Hurtz," she responded as her Geno Saurer anchored onto the ground and straightened out to unleash its Charged Particle Gun, "my past is off-limits. You want to go toe-to-toe with me, pretty boy? You'd best be ready to lay down the hurt. Bring your endgame with you, not your chatty habits."

"I've modified my Elephander to be more defensive with its E-Shield. I can overcome your CPG without breaking a sweat."

Fortunately, Valerie wasn't deterred by his claim that her attack would not work on his Zoid. Part of the reason she had her Geno Saurer modified the way she did was to improve the quality of her CPG by improving the armor by adding a cooling system to the back and adding the versatility of the Buster Claws, which would triple its force to cause a cascade of system failures if any Zoids happen to get in the way of the beams. The way her Geno Saurer was modified to fight was also part of why some in the battle community called her the Vixen Warrior; her assaults were like the wrath of a woman that claimed many broken hearts out of an unreasonable spite.

"Come on, then," Dracob provoked her as his Zoid raised its E-Shield. "Come on! Do your worst, Axiom! Take your best shot! Take your best…heart-breaking…shot!"

Her Buster Claws aimed at the Elephander alongside her Geno Saurer, Valerie let him have it.

"It's not my fault if this breaks your Zoid," she told him, and opened fire.

FLASH-BANG! The Geno Saurer unleashed the charged particles across the field towards the Elephander, colliding with its E-Shield.

The Elephander was only slightly moved, but otherwise putting up a resistance.

"Is this really the best you got?!" She heard him ask her. "Is this really your strongest move?! I…"

Crack! The sound of the shield cracking caught their attention, and then the Elephander lowering to its front, as if under pressure.

"Now, hey, wait a minute, Valerie," he tried to say.

"You brought this on yourself," she cut him off, and her CPG shattered his E-Shield, forcing his Zoid to fall on its back onto the ground, suffering a cascade of system crashes it couldn't cope with. "This will teach you a thing or three about messing with me."

-x-

"…Damn, that woman's got her own doomsday weapon there," one of the NERV personnel expressed as they saw Valerie defeat one of the Elephanders. "Just one attack, and that walking tank went down!"

Gendo was mildly impressed that a Zoid like this Geno Saurer that had been modified possessed such a powerful weapon at its disposal; nothing NERV currently possessed (not even the JSSDF or United States Armed Forces, for that matter) had that kind of offensive power, and the people that owned these…biomechanical monsters used them in these competitions as though they were giant toys. If any government on Earth had even a small number of these Zoids, they'd probably put the Evas into suspension or enable small countries to become powerhouses. But due to the agreement the UN had with the Zoid Battle Commission, the use of Zoids on Earth was prohibited, and the use of them to wage wars was also a crime. Still, to know that Shinji chose this type of life over the lives of the human race was nothing short of an insult and a selfish act of self-preservation; Gendo had refused to admit that his reasons for wanting Shinji to join NERV and pilot the Eva were for his own self-interests.

"One Elephander down," another personnel member uttered, "two more to go."

"Oh, it looks like Shinji's having a hard time taking down his with his Liger Rogue," another person expressed, but then changed their tone and the new footage presented itself. "No, no, he took its trunk off. Damn, he could be a marksman."

Gendo looked at his screen and saw Shinji had indeed shot off the trunk of his Elephander adversary with that cannon on his Zoid's back, which in the process allowed him to score more points as a result of causing more damage to the enemy team.

"I take it you heard about your son being in a Zoid battle, too?" He turned around and looked at Ritsuko, who was looking at a tablet of her own, no doubt watching the battle. "It would seem that Ms. Megumi has quickly brought out potential in Shinji to do what he can as a pilot."

Gendo gave her a look of contempt and she backed away from him.

"This is nothing more than a game for children to play," he stated.

"…Two-hundred yen says that Shinji defeats that Elephander on his own," some of the personnel were saying in the background.

"Four-hundred yen on Shinji!"

"Well, they're certainly eager to watch him play," Ritsuko told Gendo.

-x-

Seeing an opportunity to get up close, Shinji ceased using the beam cannon and charged towards the damaged Elephander.

"Here goes my first close-range assault," he told himself, one of his displays showing Liger Rogue's left forepaw generating laser energy to increase its shredding potential. "Huh? What's this?"

The display in front of him changed to show the claw attack shifting in its ability, its name changing from "Strike Laser Claw" to "Shield-Shredding Laser Claw".

_That's strange, _he thought; none of the Zoids he practiced with in the simulations demonstrated a shift in their abilities. _Can a Zoid actually do that?_

Meanwhile, the damaged Elephander erected its E-Shield, unwilling to let itself be defeated by some Zoid that had never seen combat until today.

Liger Rogue, with its paw surging with charged energy, leapt into the air.

"Shield-Shredding Laser Claw!" Shinji yelled as his Zoid pulled back its claw and thrust it forward, colliding with the shield.

"You newbies must've never fought against Elephanders before!" He heard the guy inside this one say to him over the intercom. "They're powerhouses! And your Zoid's like a demented toy! Where'd you get it, the backyard of some little girl?"

Shinji frowned and sneered, "You're about to eat your words. Let's go, Rogue!"

"Rrrrraaurgh!" Liger Rogue roared, applying further pressure against the E-Shield.

The Elephander started sinking into the ground by a few inches, no doubt a result of the attack it was trying to endure.

CRACK! Something on the Elephander snapped…and the E-Shield gave out, causing the larger Zoid to get slammed on by the smaller one, and fell to its left side in defeat.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" The pilot yelled.

Standing on its legs, Liger Rogue roared in victory over defeating the Elephander.

"We did it," Shinji cheered, elated and relieved over his first match against an actual Zoid.

"Congratulations, Shinji," went Nico over the intercom. "You and Liger Rogue are an impressive team. Although…I think we're going to have to do something about the armor."

"Huh?"

Liger Rogue's armor had showed signs of heat warp and singe; somehow, the heat generated from the collision between offensive and defensive power had caused cosmetic damages.

"Aw, man," he groaned, wondering if his Zoid could self-eject the armor.

Suddenly, the damaged armor popped off Liger Rogue, freeing the Zoid.

-x-

"Hell, yeah!" Fuyutsuki heard some personnel cheer over Shinji's victory over the Elephander he was facing.

Even he wouldn't deny it, but the sub-commander was thoroughly impressed by Shinji's first achievement. He could've piloted the Eva, but Shinji chose the path of the Zoid instead when he found out about why his father wanted him here. In a way, Fuyutsuki couldn't be any more relieved over the fact that Shinji was light years away from NERV on Zi, trying to find his own way there rather than find a way here on Earth. And all because a little girl took an interest in him joining her Zoid team.

"Battle over," he heard the voice of the Judge on one of the tablets. "The winner is the Clover Team!"

"That kid is likely to become a champion of the Zoid battles if he continues on this path he's on," a man suspected.

"Yeah, he's certainly showing his skills," a woman agreed.

In his silence, Fuyutsuki agreed with them.

-x-

Landing on the ground after downing her Elephander opponent, Geisha climbed out of her Storm Sworder and ran over to Valerie and Shinji, who had met over by Nico's Gustav where said girl was praising them.

"Our first Zoid battle and our first victory," she told them. "I feel like we're unstoppable right now."

"That's how the first victory always feels," Valerie responded. "A first win feels like invincibility has been bestowed upon you…until the next battle, that is, and you're up against a different team that has most likely studied your tactics and gets the upper hand on you. You can't beat everyone the same way more than once or twice."

Nico felt like this was a let-down coming from Valerie, but she was right about it. Still, this was their first win, so she wanted them to enjoy their high while it was still fresh. Then, she looked at Shinji, who seemed bothered by his Zoid being exposed.

"Now that Liger Rogue has seen battle for the first time in a long time," she stated to him, "we should be able to do something about its armor next time."

He turned to her and responded, "Yeah… Just…maybe something that isn't purple all the time. It was good armor, but it just didn't give her a sense of intimidation."

"Yeah, purple is an overused color for armor."

"Rrrraaurgh!" Liger Rogue roared again, displaying its independence more so than Geisha's Storm Sworder or Valerie's Geno Saurer.

"Question, though," Valerie went. "Why the clover?"

"Clovers have always been a symbol of luck," Nico explained their team's designation. "Depending on the number of leaves on it, the clover can represent any of these aspects: Faith, hope, love, good luck. People love clovers."

"Yeah," Geisha agreed with her, "people love clovers."

-x-

With one victory for the Zoid team his son was on, this situation was likely to get worse for Gendo until he could get a list of the Zoid teams that could or would be competing in this tournament to determine which one would make it to the top. The All-for-One Risk Gamble was still possible to implement if he could manipulate the opposing teams to defeat the Clover Team five consecutive times in order to retrieve the Third Child and force him to pilot the Eva.

_It's just one victory,_ he thought as he checked the stats of the Clover Team. _They need to win five consecutive times in order to move from Class "C" to Class "B". Then twenty wins to move to Class "A"…and fight against the other teams just to stay in that class._

-x-

"…So, uh, Drake," went Shinji as he looked down at the large cauldron full of the discarded armor of Liger Rogue melting away into a superheated sludge, "you know what you're doing here, right?"

"Yeah," Drake responded; the hangar possessed a foundry for constructing new armor from old armor, reusing the metallic scrap heap they managed to accumulate over the years. "My father worked in a foundry for a few years in order to amass the money he needed to buy a new Zoid he wanted. He taught me everything I know about retooling armaments. For Zoids that focus on power-to-size, thicker armor is required, and for Zoids specializing in speed, the armor has to be tough, but light enough for them to move as fast as they're supposed to be able to. I checked the individual pieces Liger Rogue had before I started melting them, and despite it moving as fast as it could, these components were actually weighing it down by at least ten tons due to their density."

"So, while the armor was tough, it limited her mobility?"

"That's right. Armor for it should weigh at least three tons, which will enable faster mobility and less friction in the joints. There's just one thing I need to know from you about it."

"What is it?"

Drake presented Shinji to a small screen with a selection of various color options…and smiled.

"What color do you want the new armor to be?" He asked him. "Customization is a form of modification that appeals to the owner in their own way. The colors and patterns for the Zoid armor makes for a pleased pilot and contented Zoid."

Shinji thought about it and looked over on the other side of the hangar where the Zoids were, seeing the exposed Rogue. There was just something in him that stressed out on the Zoid being female, despite many Zoids having no gender pronouns, similar to how certain people referred to their cars as just machines. But she deserved better-looking armor, and the purple and green armor just didn't do her any justice. So, looking back at the color palette, he chose two colors that he felt were better.

"Blue and silver, huh?" Drake asked.

"I think they're going to make Rogue pretty and intimidating," he explained.

"Who am I to judge? Okay, blue and silver it is. The new armor will be ready in eight hours."

"Thank you."

As Shinji walked away, Nico came into the foundry, a look of worry on her face.

"Did something happen?" He asked her.

"I got a call from my father, and he informed me of something your father's going to do," she told Shinji. "He's so adamant on you returning to Earth that my father told him of a gamble he could try to make you do just that."

"You talking about the All-for-One Risk Gamble?" Drake questioned. "That's a live-or-die struggle. Only people that think they got nothing to lose and everything else to gain take that gamble."

"What's the All-for-One Risk Gamble?" Shinji asked Nico.

"It's where someone bets on another team against ours," she explained. "If a Zoid team loses five times in a row, causing their rank to drop, the winner of the gamble is entitled to whatever they demanded when they set the stakes. It could be anything, ranging from a certain number of Zoids, free parts for five years…or someone removed from an equation that they feel is jeopardizing their own plans. Basically, if we get defeated five consecutive times by any other Zoid team, don't matter who they are, then that means…your father can make you go back to Earth and do whatever he wants you to do."

Shinji couldn't believe this. There was a gamble his father was going to try to get him back to Earth, a place he didn't want to go back to right now, not when he was feeling like he was starting to fit in here. Worse was how the gamble worked, meaning any loss they gained was one his old man could use to tie a chain on his fate.

"He only wins if we lose five times in a row," said Drake, "meaning it'll be awhile before something like that even occurs."

"And we're still Class "C", with just one win and no losses," Nico added, reminding Shinji of where they stood. "Even if we lost four times out of five, just one win forces the initiator of the gamble to continue waiting until they get their five wins over a Zoid team, meaning your father can't get you so long as we avoid a fifth loss, Shinji."

This put a smile on Shinji's face.

"What are the chances of the Clover Team losing five times?" He asked.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, Liger Rogue won't be wearing the same armor next time. And the Clover Team relishes their first win. Gendo is going to cause them problems in the future, but they're not going to let him rule their chances of victory.


	5. New and Improved

Creation began on 08-22-19

Creation ended on 09-19-19

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: New and Improved

The hangar was closed off due to the heavy rain, keeping the Clover Team locked in until it let up. It had been three days since their first official battle, with the next battle scheduled against the Muscles Team once weather conditions were met, which allowed the Clover Team to study their next opponent in order to get the upper hand.

"So, heavy rain restricts the Zoid battles to a degree?" Shinji asked Geisha as they were studying the Muscles Team's Zoid preferences.

"Heavy rain makes the battlefield unstable and exploitable to everyone by taking advantage of the malleable terrain and limited vision," Geisha explained. "About eight years ago, it was allowed, but then a few people made it illegal due to the rainy days being taken advantage of too much. It also makes flying a risk due to the possibility of lightning strikes."

"When the rain lets up and the sun comes out," went Valerie to them as she lay across a sofa with a book detailing information on the Lightning Saix Zoid, dressed in nothing but a light blue bra, panties and stockings, "the battles can resume."

This was one of the woman's habits she didn't want them poking fun at as long as she was a member of the team. Personally, Geisha had no problem with it, since she was also a girl, while Shinji did his best to not pay her any unwanted attention; it was none of his business how a girl wanted to dress while indoors. But Drake Toros…had a challenge of maintaining his focus on doing research when a half-naked woman that was overly attractive served as a distraction.

"Miss Axiom is out of your league, Drake," Geisha told him as he sat at a table reviewing how one of the members of the Muscles Team used an Iron Kong.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Geisha," he responded.

"This is a perfect lesson for you to overcome distractions."

"Is it even possible for men to be distracted outside of a Zoid battle?" Valerie questioned, looking away from the book and over at Shinji, who seemed to be ignoring her state of dress. "Look at me, Shinji. Do I distract you?"

Shinji looked up from his tablet and at the older woman, clearly trying to focus on just her face.

"I respect you, Ms. Axiom," he stated, "but it is distracting. Do I pay attention or do I not pay attention? You say not to poke at your habits, so I will not question the why to your reason for being indecent."

"At least you admit it. The less it doesn't bother you, the less you can be distracted by my indecent presence. Make no mistake; I'm not trying to trigger arousal in either you or Drake."

"Understood and appreciated," Drake uttered, but still couldn't help but look at the older woman. "You look hot, by the way."

"Thank you," she responded.

-x-

"Hey, there, Asuka," greeted Misato to a young girl with long, red hair and wearing a yellow dress. "You've gotten taller since the last time I saw you, haven't you?"

"Not only, but my figure's filled out, as well," the redhead responded. "But tell me something… I just heard about this situation you're currently in over a boy that didn't show up, but is it true that this…Zoid Battle Commission…up and took the kid just to reinvigorate their revenue in the entertainment industry?"

"It…it isn't that simple, Asuka. The ZBC is…an independent organization that isn't even here on Earth. It's on Zi."

"Zi? You mean, that planet on the other side of the Milky Way?! If they don't have any business with NERV, then why did they decide to take an Eva pilot the day an Angel attacks?"

"Well, he didn't pilot the Eva a day in his life, Asuka…and as it turned out, he wasn't informed of why he was asked to be here at all; his father, Commander Ikari, was supposed to have told him beforehand, but he never told him anything about the situation we were facing at that time…and the person that went to great lengths to get the boy to Zi during the crisis and had the Angel defeated in a different way that put NERV on standby…is an eight-year-old girl in charge of a Zoid team the boy is on. So…until further notice, Shinji Ikari…is a member of this Clover Team that participates in Zoid battles in a tournament."

"Zoids? You mean, those model kits of mechanical animals that people spend money on to build and customize? That sounds like a waste of time."

"Except the model kits only show you what they look like most of the time…and are only allowed on Earth. Zi has Zoids that are actually massive and can be used for combat…and were a long time ago. Now, they're just for the entertainment industry in order to test people's abilities using them in sanctioned battles."

"Like the Eva?"

"No, they don't permit anything relating to synchronization between a pilot and a biomechanical organism, Asuka. It's a prohibited type of science that serves no purpose in the world of Zoids."

"So, Zoids are just giants comparable to robots that require joysticks or buttons to control, eh, Katsuragi?" Misato heard that voice from her past as she saw the guy she used to date in college.

"I wouldn't know for sure," she answered him, sounding bitter over seeing him again after so many years. "I have never paid attention to these Zoids until about five days ago when the Third Child up and relocated to a place on the other side of the Milky Way and chose not to return when his father refused to just tell him why he wanted him here instead of telling him after he got here."

"And your opinion on the boy's decision to stay away due to his father's refusal to divulge the truth about why?"

"He made his own choice to refuse his father simply because the guy refused to explain why he wanted him here over one lousy phone call. I think Commander Ikari should've just told him instead of saying that he'd find out after he came back, but then, there was the possibility that he'd refuse to pilot the Eva on account of not being informed ahead of time before the Angel appeared. Honestly… I don't blame him for choosing not to come back; if he wasn't informed ahead of time and was expected to pilot the Eva with no training and no chance of it even working, it would've been a bad gamble on NERV's part. We'd be playing a risk that had no guarantee of the Angel being defeated."

"Are you serious?" Asuka questioned. "The boy had no training to pilot the Eva? What was the commander thinking, trying to make his own kid pilot an Eva if he had no knowledge of it?"

"What was he thinking, indeed?" Kaji wondered. "If he even thinks much of anything at all."

"So he traded the opportunity to pilot the world's most advanced technological marvel and face a threat against the human race for a lousy opportunity to pilot a giant, robotic animal in sanctioned competitions for people's entertainment and for some time far away from his father. How's his other relatives taking this?" Asuka asked.

Misato fidgeted slightly; she could still remember the reaction she got from the aunt and uncle regarding Shinji's departure from the Earth to Zi. Not only did they not care that he wasn't in Tokyo-3, but they didn't care that he wasn't even on the planet, so long as he was no longer their concern after his father sent a letter for him to come see him.

"They're…they're not concerned at all about their nephew being on the other side of the Milky Way," she explained.

"That's…very messed up, Katsuragi," Kaji expressed. "The boy's father is determined to get him back here to pilot the Eva, but his aunt and uncle are indifferent towards him being far away from here? Can I get your personal opinion about the Ikari family?"

"Personally, if the boy's father chose not to inform him ahead of time before the Angel attacked, then his other relatives must be indifferent about anything he does. If I didn't know any better… I don't think Shinji…actually has anybody on the whole planet that actually…gives a damn about him. Despite our own situation with the Angels, it's probably…better for him if he didn't return to Earth at all. A person like Shinji that has nobody that actually wants him around beyond some sort of requirement…isn't likely to get by on Earth. He's probably better off on Zi."

"So, NERV is just going to let this kid run away because he's got family issues?" Asuka asked.

-x-

Standing in the hangar where the Zoids were stationed, Shinji examined Liger Rogue in her new armor that was an improvement from the previous version.

Liger Rogue's armor was predominantly silver all over the place, sporting blue edges and trims on the sides of the head and legs. In one sense, during the day, this Zoid was as difficult to hide in plain sight because of its color configuration, but at night, it could've hidden due to how the armor seemed to reflect light off it. But to Shinji, she was more beautiful than she had been when he first laid eyes upon her form.

"You know, if you keep eyeing your Zoid like that, people are going to think you have a Zoid fetish or something," he heard Nico say behind him, startling him.

"That's not… I mean, uh, I'm just admiring her new look," Shinji tried to defend his observation of Liger Rogue to the girl, but she chuckled.

"I'm just kidding," she assured him. "A lot of Zoid pilots like to admire their Zoids every now and then. They're ancient, biomechanical organisms, but still the greatest thing to have ever happened to Zi, and the bond forged between Zoid and pilot makes them all the greater. Even Geisha here, she gives her Zoids a weekly wash maintenance; some types of armor might be rust-resistant, but there's no such thing as invincible armor."

Shinji then looked at Drake's hand-me-down Gun Sniper and pointed at it.

"Does Drake wash his Zoid every now and then?" He questioned.

"He does…along with the occasional maintenance," she answered. "It's not always the body of the Zoid, but the Zoid Core itself."

"I've checked it two weeks ago," they heard Drake say to them as he came over to climb into the cockpit of the Zoid. "Two years is the potential time limit the core has left before breaking down completely, but the last time my grandmother's Zoid ever saw combat, it was so extreme that it was decided that extreme damage accelerates the deterioration of the Zoid Core. That's why it didn't face the Elephanders in our first match."

"Reconsidering upgrading to a new Zoid sooner than later?" Nico asked him.

"I'm afraid it has to be later," he explained. "My parents won't let me get a new Zoid until Grandmother Leena's has bit the dust and moved onto the next battlefield where we can't follow. My mother's idea, saying that I shouldn't go through a new Zoid without first going through the one I currently have."

"Not a bad idea," Shinji expressed…and then returned his gaze to Liger Rogue.

Two minutes later, the modified Gun Sniper began to move slightly in its head and arms.

-x-

"…So, he joined this Clover Team and obtained a Zoid called Liger Rogue?" Kaji asked as he and Asuka looked on a tablet at Shinji's small profile on the Zoid team he was on, along with the limited information there was on Liger Rogue. "It looks like earlier, the Zoid's armor resembled Unit-01's based on the coloration, but after the first battle it went into, the armor suffered from heat warp and was replaced with a new set that was customized blue and silver."

"How does someone like this boy get a personal robot like this that belongs to another world?" Asuka questioned. "And how could a little girl that's in charge of this team he's on just give it to him? It's insane!"

"The girl comes from an influential family, Asuka," Misato explained. "Miss Megumi picked Shinji out of all the fourteen-year-olds alive on Earth today. It turned out that half these fourteen-year-olds were better than he was…and the other half were worse than he was, leaving him dead in the center."

"But why pick him over those that could've been better than he could've been? That's like…picking a mediocre school over an elite one."

"Similar to how Commander Ikari picked his son to pilot the Eva, despite the boy not knowing anything about it, Nico Megumi picked Shinji and offered him the opportunity to pilot a Zoid. While both wanted Shinji for different reasons, the outcome had to hinge on Shinji himself deciding which choice to make…and he chose a Zoid over an Eva. He chose a tournament on Zi over a war on Earth."

"Some people would rather be contestants over soldiers," Kaji stated, and looked at Liger Rogue's weapon system. "In many respects, this mechanical feline is a military weapon-turned-toy for a teenager."

"And an eight-year-old girl practically gave this thing to him," Asuka retorted, and swiped right to the next member of the Clover Team, which turned out to be Valerie Axiom and her Geno Saurer. "Now, this is a woman that looks like she can get business taken care of."

-x-

The rain was letting up now. It would likely be another few hours before it stopped and the sun came out and evaporated the wet soil out in the terrain.

"How hot does it get out here on Zi?" Shinji asked Valerie as they were walking to their respective quarters after eating dinner with the others.

"During the summer, it can reach up to one-hundred-twenty degrees," she answered him, "just hot enough to turn mud into dirt again."

"I should probably bring water with me."

"It's never a bad thing to be prepared for being out there for an extended period."

Shinji then returned to his quarters and sighed as he sat at his desk.

_It's still only one victory, _he thought as he referred to the All-for-One Risk Gamble his father had been told about that he was no doubt implementing. _Class "A"…then Class "S". I want to get to Class "S". I want the whole team to get into Class "S". I…I don't want to go back to Earth on account of my father's agenda to make me pilot the Eva to face giant monsters if he refuses to come clean with his darker reasons. And it's a thankless obligation he's trying to force me into it._

In all fairness, Shinji would rather be here fighting in a Zoid tournament instead of risking his life is a war with creatures he knew nothing about. And this was his rebelling against an absentee parental figure that had no right to force an unwanted life of war onto his wayward son; he had only become wayward in the sense that he made choices that conflicted with his father's and had no intention of cooperating.

Then, looking out his window at the terrain, he sighed again at the thought of merely being in another Zoid battle and trying to win it.

-x-

"…So, you understand my reason for calling," went Gendo as he finally got in touch with the guy that managed the Muscles Team, the Clover Team's next matchup in the tournament. "There's a member on the Clover Team that doesn't belong, and I need him on Earth for my own purposes. But in order to get him, his team needs to lose five times in a row. If you or any other opposing teams can do this five times in a row, I will make it worth your team's time if you're successful and he's forced to retire from Zoids."

"It's your gamble, Mr. Ikari," the man on the other end said. "We'll be in touch after the match."

Hanging up, Gendo smirked with devious intent; he had managed to get one Zoid team to fight against the Third Child's and now all he had to do was wait for the results. Still, it was just one opposing team, not one he could truly control. He would need to take it up with SEELE to try and oppose the Clover Team further by creating a Zoid team of their own and facing Ms. Megumi's in order to possess the boy that ran away from them.

_Zoids, _he thought as he looked at a tablet on his desk that depicted the Liger Rogue and Shinji. _As impressive as the more intimidating ones seem, they still pale in comparison to the Evas. They will ensure mankind's future, not some mechanical animals used in some petty game._

To be continued…

A/N: Well, this was just to have some of the Clover Team socializing when they weren't in a Zoid battle and how they are adjusting to each other. I bet at least one of you out there can guess which character from a different series inspired the habit that Valerie Axiom displayed that was distracting for some. And then, there's the discovery that Shinji's aunt and uncle seem to know that he's not in Tokyo-3, but don't care about him like his father doesn't, making the boy seem more sympathetic and why Zi is likely the best place for him to be.


	6. Parental Guidance

Creation began on 10-02-19

Creation ended on 01-07-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: Parental Guidance

A/N: How far can anyone go to call themselves a parent and truly mean it? How far should any parent go to install a sense of acceptance in their children? And how far will any parent go to make their child do as they're told or expected to do?

It had been five weeks since the match between the Clover Team and the Muscles Team…and the latter team lost to the former, which disappointed Gendo because that was a second victory for his son to ensure that he remained on Zi, out of his reach. Not only had the Zoid team the boy was on had won two victories against an opposing team, but now they had a total of five victories against five teams, enabling the Clover Team to move from Class "C" to Class "B", a major shift from the small rewards they gained from the initial class ranking. And his son was gaining the same degree of recognition as the rest of the team he was on, and mainly due to his occupation as the pilot of this Liger Rogue ever since it got its armor upgrade from looking like Unit-01, an Evangelion that he doubt the boy had even seen a picture of, to its blue and silver appearance, which made the Zoid look better in the eyes of the public that watched it in the four previous matches it participated in.

"What a bummer, though," he heard one of the female personnel members say to someone else in the hall as he returned to his office. "It seems that with each passing victory against other Zoid teams, his profile gets filled out with more history from his past than his present. His very childhood is…was completely unfulfilling. It's no wonder he chose to leave the planet to join the Clover Team. I'd want a more-fulfilling life where I matter to someone that gives a damn, too."

"There's this that was more present," a male member of the personnel responded as they evaluated the background of the Third Child's Zoid pilot profile. "His father tried to order him to return to Earth, but refused to answer why he wanted him back, even when he had plenty of time to simply come out and explain his reasons that the kid was already made aware of because the Clover Team's manager, Nico Megumi."

The two personnel members turned to look at Gendo, who looked back at them.

"He could've told his son why he wanted him here, but just stressed that he needed to return to pilot the Eva," the woman resumed.

"Yeah," the man expressed. "But his son refused him; if he couldn't just explain to him why he wanted him here, then there was no point in listening to him."

"If this were my kid, I'd just tell him why I needed him here."

-x-

Shinji was taking this simulation quite well, despite it being designed to test his focus on three different opponents using the same Zoid with three different configurations that hadn't been seen since the days of legendary Zoid pilot Bit Cloud.

"How long has he been in this simulated scenario?" Valerie asked Nico, who was monitoring Shinji's vitals during the whole program.

"Four hours straight," the little girl told the young woman. "He was impressed by how there were other Zoids in history that were, more or less, one of a kind because not many people have either seen or manufactured them. He and Liger Rogue are up against Liger Zero Jaeger, Schneider, and Panzer."

Valerie went wide-eyed and expressed, "THE Liger Zero Jaeger, Schneider, AND Panzer?!"

"Yep."

"How is he supposed to contend with all three of the best configurations of the Liger Zero? Each version was a force to be reckoned with."

"I don't expect Shinji to best all three. The simulation is merely to test his focus on which one to deal with first as the situation progresses. Each version of the Liger Zero focuses heavily on just one of three benefits their configuration allows: Speed, offense and defense."

In the simulation, Shinji was traversing the canyons where all three Liger Zeroes were lying in wait for him to make a mistake.

"Where are you?" He wondered aloud, looking at all three directions in front of him where at least the Jaeger and Schneider could come at him.

WHOOSH! He heard something behind him…and jumped to the left!

Something blue and blurry ran past him.

_Liger Zero Jaeger, _he thought as he got back up and pursued it. _Maybe you'll lead me to Schneider or Panzer._

-x-

"…So, he's in this Class "B" now, and we're still waiting for the next Angel to show up," Asuka stated to Kaji as she finished another round of synchronization training with Unit-02. "He's just living it up on Zi, training to win a tournament while we're on Earth trying to stop a catastrophe from happening. What do the people that don't know who that idiot is think they're playing at, looking at him like he's some sort of hero for piloting a Zoid?!"

"The people don't know about the Angels, Asuka; therefore, they don't know about him, except for what they know about his father and his background," Kaji told her as they walked down the hall to the cafeteria. "The more anyone reads his profile and observes his prowess in Zoid matches, even just the five he's been in so far, they see someone that wasn't having a positive life in Japan and no longer desired to be here, just wanting to be somewhere else for a while. In a way, Zi was the perfect getaway."

"And his father just…refused to tell him anything about what he already found out about from Nico Megumi, who hacked NERV's computers and took all the information that brat would ever need to know what was going on…and he made his choice to reject his old man out of spite."

"From what I've been able to scrounge up from the JSSDF, some of their latest combat strategies for dealing with an Angel may only involve minor use of an Evangelion, particularly the use of the AT-Field, focusing primarily on the use of their N² weapons to waste each one."

"What?! That's ridiculous! It's like I'm only good for one thing around here!"

"Well, they did defeat the Fourth Angel three days ago."

It was true, the JSSDF discovered the Fourth Angel as it emerged over Japanese waters, and defeated it using the same strategy deployed against the Third Angel along with an N² bomb dropped from the sky. This resulted in the Angel's AT-Field being unable to protect it from such a contained explosion that minimized the damage to just a small patch of ruined land. The two wins against the Angels alone left the UN pondering if NERV was going to be both a waste of time and resources.

"So," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo in the latter's office, "I take it none of this was either the scenario of the Committee or your own scenario, Ikari?"

"There hasn't been a scenario for anyone ever since the Third Child failed to show up the day the Third Angel appeared," Gendo retorted mildly. "The Third and Fourth Angels were supposed to have been defeated by Unit-01, not the JSSDF. Even if we have Units-00 and 02 and a Fourth Child on standby, everything is moot without the Third Child being around to do as intended of him, which is to pilot the Eva and face the Angels."

"Ikari, best not to forget…it was your choice not to tell him what he already discovered when he got to Zi. It was your choice to send for him to come here, just as it was his choice to say no. Maybe Ms. Megumi made it easier for him by having him far away from you so as to lessen the blow you would make during that call between here and there. Even if you had influenced him to return, there was no guarantee that he'd even pilot the Eva after learning everything we had kept on the MAGI."

"It is at this point irrelevant…until he does come back. His Zoid team needs only to lose five times in a row in order for him to be forced to return."

"But the chances of any opposing Zoid team putting up a chance of defeating the Clover Team he's on are very slim. Some people that watch the matches actually want your son's team to win this world cup that gives the Class "S" status to Class "A" Zoid pilots. And, as treacherous as this may sound…I want to see him win, as well, meaning I want to see him continue to defy you."

Gendo felt disrespected by this discovery from Fuyutsuki; as much as it was important to have the Third Child pilot the Eva, the sub-commander wanted to see him continue to persist in being a Zoid pilot. It was an insult to what they were trying to achieve here.

-x-

Even in a simulation, it felt like the new armor of Liger Rogue was getting pummeled by missiles and lasers. And for Shinji, he was getting the Liger Zero Panzer survival experience head-on. Even with the heavily-armored Zoid being stationed by a large rock formation, the Panzer was no pushover due to its firepower.

_Even if I move closer, the Schneider will be by to attack me, _Shinji thought as he felt the shaking of his simulation cockpit cease; the Panzer had stopped firing missiles and was probably reloading or cooling down to prevent overheating. _That means only one strategy can be employed right now: The Jaeger becomes the priority target._

With his Zoid recovered, he ran to his right, moving away from where the Panzer was, just as it started firing missiles again.

_Panzer uses short-range missiles with a limit of thirty meters. If I was within the thirty-meter range, I just have to run a few meters to escape the range limit._

Outside the simulation, Nico and Valerie were engaged in further conversation.

"…So, his parents really are awful people," Valerie sighed as Nico had explained to her how she came to choose Shinji over half the global population of Earth's teenagers that were better or worse than he was in piloting a Zoid. "They just wanted to exploit him to operate a cybernetic organism they modeled after a creature they had discovered underground? And it actually connects with a person's nervous system?"

"Yeah," Nico told her. "What's worse is that they're only doing these horrible things to their son and the world because they believe in a prophecy the public is unaware of. They acted based on the so-called prophesied day this being called Adam was to awaken. They woke him up prematurely, after some time was spent experimenting on him with human DNA, and he was made to explode, triggering a series of cataclysms that ruined most of the Earth. They called this madness they caused Second Impact, keeping up appearances with the whole meteorite concept that causes a major calamity to a planet. But what they're really after is an artificial apocalypse worse than the one they unleashed fifteen years ago. Something they call the Human Instrumentality Project, which they believe will save the human race. But my father and I know for a fact that this isn't the way to save anyone. You can't deliberately destroy the world in order to save it. You can't kill people and say that they'll be saved from a fate worse than death, either. If you can't find a way to save everyone that doesn't require such disastrous methods, then you don't deserve to save anyone, no matter who they are, be it your parents, your siblings, not even your friends or a complete stranger."

Valerie looked over at the simulation cockpit and had to be honest with herself and Nico about what she thought about Shinji just now.

"It's probably a good thing you got him away from Earth, from his family, if that's what you can even call those people," she expressed. "Just looking at him and judging him by his personality and lack of a proper upbringing by responsible parents, Shinji's not worthy of any position where he has to be responsible for the fate of everyone. That's no hero. That's not even a messiah by any standards. That's just a live puppet forced to play for a cruel puppeteer that wants the world to bend to their will."

"If Shinji were outside the simulation I put him in to train his focus, he'd probably agree with you," Nico gave her opinion. "It's just as you said when you first arrived here. There's no such thing as a perfect parent."

"When I said that…I was…"

"Hey, hey, I'm not judging you. We all have skeletons in our closets we wish we didn't have. We're not perfect…and will never be perfect. People as a whole can either accept the flaws of its individual members…or reject them outright. As an individual, I choose to accept the flaws of those around me…until they no longer affect me. Still…it gives you and Shinji something in common with one another."

-x-

Even with a clean bill of health and about to participate in the reactivation test of Unit-00, Rei Ayanami had received barely any information about this absentee Third Child that people were talking being elsewhere. She once asked Gendo Ikari about him, and even he barely explained anything beyond his expression of how "that brat refused to listen to an order he was given and might as well have renounced his humanity". This indicated to her that whoever the Third Child was and wherever he was, it was causing NERV some undue stress in a sense. The only other people she felt she could answer were the sub-commander or Captain Katsuragi, as they would probably know more and explain more.

"Captain Katsuragi," she spoke, getting the woman's attention while in the halls, "who was the Third Child that was scheduled to arrive at NERV, but didn't?"

This question left Misato slightly puzzled; she had expected the First Child to have been informed about the Third Child's current status like the Second Child had been informed, but the fact that she was asking her about him led her to wonder why she hadn't been informed.

"The Third Child is… Well, officially, he's Commander Ikari's son," she explained to the albino girl, "but unofficially, his lack of presence here is due to his relocation off-planet by a young girl named Nico Megumi, who recruited him for a team she had been putting together for a tournament that happens every year now. The boy was approached with the offer to join her team in addition to information on why his father wanted him to show up here, and he accepted. This was all on the same day the Third Angel had attacked and was defeated by the JSSDF. Commander Ikari was informed later that same day that his son wouldn't be here, and was later contacted by Ms. Megumi and the Third Child, who chose not to return to Earth after being informed of why his father wanted him here…because he wouldn't tell him personally why he wanted him here, despite Commander Ikari telling him that it was a matter of survival of the human race. Personally, I believe Commander Ikari should've just told his son why he wanted him here; the fact that the boy was informed shortly after leaving the planet to the other side of the Milky Way implies that he had no knowledge whatsoever of NERV or the Eva, and being told to arrive the same day an Angel attacks, it just raises certain questions and demands certain answers most people don't know how to answer. If this is true, then he had absolutely no previous experience piloting the Eva if he was expected to face the Angel."

"But…if he had no previous knowledge of NERV, why would Commander Ikari want him here?"

"Most of the personnel suspect it was to train him or gamble with our future if we were to face the Angel that day. Unfortunately, the JSSDF was able to defeat the Angel with their N² weaponry so we were not needed to deal with it, allowing you to recover from the Unit-00 incident further."

This was quite a discovery for Rei. To find out that the Third Child was Commander Ikari's own son, who likely had no prior knowledge of any of this, of NERV, the Angels or the Eva, and then to be approached by another person with an offer that promised him information regarding the reason his father wanted him here…and then choosing to leave the planet over aiding to protect the human race against potential extinction… It was no wonder why Commander Ikari was upset that the Third Child wasn't here, but if he wasn't informed or even trained to pilot the Eva, then there was no point in recruiting someone during an attack where there was no time to even receive basic training to face an Angel.

"Rei," went Captain Katsuragi to the girl, "you don't even know what he looks like, do you?"

"I do not," Rei answered simply.

-x-

Most likely suffering from frozen errors, the Liger Zero Jaeger was down in front of Shinji's Liger Rogue, which had defeated it with a carefully-timed Strike Laser Claw attack.

"One down," he uttered, "two to go."

"Rrrrraaurgh!" He heard the roaring of the Liger Zero Schneider as it came his way, utilizing its Seven Blade Attack.

_Show no fear, Shinji, even in a simulation, _he thought as he waited for the last moment to get out of the way. _Wait for it. Wait for it._

The bladed Zoid got closer and closer towards him until, just at the last moment, Liger Rogue dodged to the right; if a Zoid came at you at high speed and you timed it just right, you could avoid getting tackled because they couldn't make hard turns.

_Take the shot! _Shinji told himself as his Zoid turned and shot three laser shots at the back of the Schneider, taking out its hind legs, crippling it.

On his screen, he received an alert that the Schneider was damaged, leaving only the Panzer left to defeat.

"Time to finish this," he uttered as he ran back towards the large rock where the Panzer was stationed, leaving the Schneider where it fell.

"…Talk about your legendary Zoid getting pummeled twice in a simulation," Valerie spoke as she and Nico followed Shinji's advance through the training program. "He took out the reconnaissance and offensive variants, leaving only the defensive one left. Are you going easy on Shinji through the simulation?"

"Barely," Nico told her. "This is the medium-hard setting. Shinji's just learning fast due to having Liger Rogue's data installed into the simulation program. And we're learning about it as we go on."

"And he was dead in the center of all fourteen-year-olds on Earth that were better or worse? He's actually close to bordering on being one of those special protégés that have an advanced degree of value, almost like you do."

"That's only if I piloted a Zoid with combat qualifications. I had to tinker with my Gustav sometimes just to make it a mobile panic room of sorts against anyone that might try to put a hit on me or anyone with me."

"Heh-heh, someone putting a hit on you would be the equivalent of picking a fight with someone with the juice to level the threat."

"If you don't mind my asking, Ms. Axiom, why are you estranged from your family? Your profile only states that you left because of a personal reason, but it never went beyond that. I respect your right to refuse to answer, though. I'm just curious."

Valerie sighed and responded, "Similar to Shinji, my parents, my entire family…aren't right in the morale department. The concepts of right and wrong…don't sit well with their personal objectives. I almost fell right into their great design, but, unlike them, I had to go and develop a conscience about everything they were doing…and ended up needing to get away from them before they pulled me into something I couldn't get out of on my own. My fear of being anything like them swelled into an anger…and the anger swelled into a hatred, and despite the distance I've tried to put in between them and I, the hatred I have for them…has caused me some suffering because some people tend to find out about my relation to them. I have done nearly everything I know I can and will do to keep from being anything like them. Even adopting the behavioral traits I've demonstrated for the last three years, hence my indoor indecency."

Although Nico knew that Valerie was beating around the bush because she didn't want to say everything about her family, she accepted this as the truth and wouldn't question it further. Everyone's reason for not being with their parents or guardians was entirely their own, including her own reasons for being away from her parents while they were settling their divorce. She found herself wondering now why people invented the move to begin with; if some adults in a stable relationship were able to get along with one another, why sever the bonds between them that the gods made between them? And she knew there was still love between her parents; any time they did have an argument, it was usually settled through conversations over confrontations, and her mother was usually the one that raised her voice over something…with her father being the type that saw no point in yelling unless it was to find someone lost in the darkness or when danger was near.

"Why are your parents splitting up?" Valerie asked her.

"They just…need to be away from each other for a while," Nico explained. "Like, five years away from each other. Nobody did anything wrong…but…relationships need to be tested and measured. They need to be made to endure a trial period of separation that determines what will become of them in the future."

"It sounds like your parents still love each other."

"That's the thing. They do still love each other."

THUD! The simulation cockpit fell to the ground and opened up, revealing Shinji with a smile of exhilaration on his face.

"I had to climb the rock," he told them as he got out of the cockpit. "The Panzer never saw my surprise attack from above."

Nico and Valerie chuckled at Shinji's success at defeating three variants of the Liger Zero.

-x-

"…So Commander Ikari received a message from Shinji?" Misato asked Ritsuko, who was informed by Kaji, despite not wanting to know anything, as they sat around in Central Dogma, two days later, following the successful reactivation of Unit-00.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't call it much of a message," Ritsuko informed her. "He's aware of the gamble that his father made against him, but he's made sure that he'll be insured in the likely event that he's forced to return to Earth."

"What do you mean, he's insured?"

"If his father has a Zoid team opposing the one he's on win five times in a row, Shinji will have no choice but to return to Earth. But Shinji, apparently due to his time in an environment that has been conductive to his personal growth and development, has made a double-edged sword of sorts in case this ever happens. He intends to expose his family's dirty laundry to the public if the Clover Team ever loses five consecutive matches. That way, even if Shinji does come back, he won't let his father push him around."

"What sort of dirty laundry could his family have that he's threatening to exploit if he's forced to come back here?"

"Something his father certainly doesn't want the people to find out about, so I'm assuming that Ms. Megumi, when she hacked the MAGI for information she gave to Shinji when he joined her team, found some things that could serve as leverage against Commander Ikari."

"So, Shinji actually made a threat against his father? That's showing major disgust towards family ties."

"What family ties? You saw his record. Even his aunt and uncle could care less about him if his own father wouldn't tell him anything he asked to know, despite already knowing. In a way, even if Shinji did come back, he doesn't really have anywhere to go, no place to actually call home. As rebellious as he might be right now, he's had no positive influences up until he met this Nico Megumi girl that offered him a choice that let him get away from the entire country and the planet itself. Lacking parental guidance affects people differently."

Misato was no stranger to a lack of parental guidance or a positive influence growing up; her own father had devoted himself to his work instead of his family…and she hated him for his decision. It wasn't all that different from how Shinji seemed to hate his father enough to refuse to return to Earth and pilot the Eva, even if not doing so meant the end of the human race. People, especially young children that hated their parents or guardians in some way due to no positive role models or maturing in a friendly environment…would often resort to methods meant to inflict personal harm onto them.

"Maybe it's not such a good idea to try and get him to pilot the Eva," she expressed.

"Try telling that to his father," Ritsuko challenged her. "They're both stubborn and persistent."

"Well, what's the status of Unit-00 now that it's reactivated?"

"There are still some feedback errors in its performance."

"So, even though it works now, it's still not combat-ready."

"Yeah. For now, Rei will have to pilot Unit-01."

That appeared to be a sound strategy, to have Rei pilot this particular Eva, despite the fact that it was the Third Child that was supposed to be piloting it. All anyone could really amount the deviation from the original operation that got shot to Hell because of either mismanagement of information or completely deliberate disinformation…was due to one's lack of involvement and another's disinterest in fighting in a war with an enemy they didn't fully understand.

Beep! Misato's cellphone went in response to a text message from someone.

"_For the next one, you should use a decoy instead of the real deal," _it read on her screen.

-x-

Because he was such a solitary person, Shinji had never been around social gatherings or invited to places where young people mixed and mingled. Most of the time, he didn't even understand why anyone his age would go out at night and either cause trouble or run loose. But here he was right now, sitting on the left leg of his Liger Rogue, on a wide street big enough for Zoids to walk or run down, watching Valerie talk to a doorman of some building. All he'd been told by Nico was that Valerie may have a contact among the people that used to participate in past Zoid matches going back decades.

He then saw Valerie walk away from the doorman and sat on Liger Rogue's paw with him.

"Your contact is in there?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she answered him. "Zara Winder, AKA, Straightedge Epyon, is the Zoid pilot to know in the underworld of Zoids. He has his fingers in just about every bit of information on the current teams or soloists that goes through here. If there's anything about any teams being hired to face ours because of your father, he's our best source of finding out."

"What kind of man is this…Straightedge Epyon?"

"He's a former champion of the Royal Cup twenty years ago. His favorite Zoids are the Raynos and Rayse Tiger. He likes to spend his days cruising on the ocean and his nights managing his nightclub, _Night Ligers_. This is his building."

"Oh…and now we just wait for him?"

"And now we wait for him…or one of his errand boys."

"Okay."

As they just sat there on his Zoid, Valerie turned to face him, seeing that he was uncomfortable for some reason.

"What?" She asked him.

"Nothing," he responded. "I just… I've never been out anywhere at night with anyone before. And it's…hard to picture you being part of the night crowds here."

She chuckled as she says, "Yeah, well…uh…when I left my family, I tried to fit in wherever I could to forget about them. It was actually here where I was introduced to club dancing."

"Three years away from home…and you don't know if anyone's been trying to find you?"

"I don't consider myself a priority to them. I'm a runaway, Shinji, a black sheep, someone that couldn't take the pressure of what was expected of me."

"That's hard for me to see after seeing how skilled you are as a Zoid pilot. What I mean is, you have a family that I didn't have in the positive sense, parents and siblings, a home…and you leave it all behind because of something that happened."

"I guess wanting to do things the honest way appealed to me more than achieving victories in matches that were rigged in unforgivable ways. That and the adequate respect afforded to those that participate without a hidden agenda."

"I'm guessing they did something to piss you off real good before you left."

Valerie decided that she couldn't beat around the bush with Shinji; if they were going to continue working together on the Clover Team, she might as well have told him why she wasn't with her family and why she had the habits she exhibited.

"Actually," she started, "my grandmother lent me her Command Wolf when I was getting my Geno Saurer modified to function without the unnecessary guns and having the Buster Claws installed. It was a nice one, too, all chrome-plated and everything. I swear, when I took it out for joyriding in the canyons that stretched for miles, that Zoid…that Zoid could fly."

"Sounds like a really impressive Zoid," Shinji praised. "So what happened?"

"Okay. It was two days before the modifications were finished for my Geno Saurer and I was out joyriding again at night where there was nobody around. And then…I get pulled over by a Pteras belonging to Zoid Traffic Patrol, pretty much the equivalent of Earth's highway patrol units or traffic police. I stop the Zoid, the man in the Pteras asks me to climb out of the cockpit, and I do what is instructed of me and like all the other law-abiding citizens of Zi. Then he starts scanning the Command Wolf for alcohol, drugs, recreational or otherwise, you know the usual routine that police often do. But I don't drink or use drugs stronger than over-the-counter painkillers, so I thought he was going to call it a night…but I ended up being wrong. He finds something in the Command Wolf that's not supposed to be there, some sort of illegal mod that enabled it to have a chamber inside the tail, which I didn't know about at all and…there was all this blood in there."

Shinji looks at her with an expression of concern.

"It was…everywhere, like someone had taken a beating in there and it didn't go well," she continued. "The next thing I know that happens, I'm getting my face slammed against the leg of the Command Wolf, the guy's about to read me my rights, despite the fact that I'm confused about this hidden chamber in my grandmother's Zoid, wondering why she would have something like that in it. But before he does anything else, he takes a look at my Zoid piloting license and reads my name: Esborrany. Valerie Esborrany. Then he asks me if I'm in any way related to a man and woman named Bruce and Katrina Esborrany, and when I explain that they're my parents…the look of fear on his face when he looked at me… He drops my wallet…and just takes off in his Pteras. He didn't even report what happened that night to his superiors. I couldn't understand why back then, why he was so damn scared of a fourteen-year-old girl with a name."

Shinji wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure what to say to her.

"I mean, he just leaves me there, and I'm standing there, looking at the blood in this hidden chamber that's not supposed to be in a Command Wolf, trying to figure where the Hell it all came from and who it belongs to," she kept going. "I go home, I return the Zoid to my grandmother…and I confront about it…and she tells me…it's nothing I need to be concerned about. A week later, I'm digging into my parents' old things, and I find this picture of a seven-man group called the Committee of Seven, and a man whose name was Charles Esborrany, my paternal great-great-great-grandfather…and he was a member of this syndicate called the Backdraft Organization. There was also a plan that was in-progress, something about bringing the Backdraft Organization back to take on the ZBC all over again. I took the photo and left a note to my family saying that they were no better than the people that failed to overthrow the ZBC…and left. After that night…and what I discovered…I couldn't deny what sort of monsters my family were…and I guess I couldn't live with it, either."

Shinji sighed at this discovery. Now he wasn't sure what to say to Valerie. What could he say to this young woman that had discovered that her family was a bunch of people that were descended from a member of a criminal organization that had tried and failed to overthrow the Zoid Battle Commission? How could he respond to a woman that had run away from home just to escape her dark legacy?

"Maybe part of the reason I partake in sanctioned matches where there's no cheating permitted…is because I'm still trying to find justice in my own way for whoever it was that was in that hidden chamber," she finished telling him.

In a way, they were similar in why they left the lives they had led in the past. He left because his parents were up to no good that would spell undesired disaster that stemmed from a disaster they and a handful of other people deliberately caused long before he even took his first breath of life and spent the last decade of his existence on a miserable path that was going nowhere except to a metaphorical Hell in the remains of a world that might as well have been Hell…and she left her family because they were trying to follow in the footsteps of a criminal organization that one of their ancestors was affiliated with…and she couldn't live with the shame of being related to them…just like how he couldn't live with his own shame of knowing that his own parents tried to manipulate him right from the start, just to do something that they couldn't.

"But…you got away from them," he finally spoke up, "and you're not a bad person, Ms. Axiom. You're not a bad person at all."

"Thank you, Shinji," she responded, grateful of him to say that.

To be continued…

A/N: At first, I wasn't sure if the title was going to make sense to the readers, but then I realized that some of the characters could be as they were due to what the parents did or are. Out of the characters in this chapter, only Nico Megumi appears the most stable due to her parents not being out to change the world or ruin it, still able to be civil towards one another, even being involved in their daughter's life. Valerie's background, I got from the short-lived television series _Birds of Prey_, in case some of you never saw that show. How many people find out they're related to criminals and want nothing to do with them, willing to do whatever to show they're nothing like the people that came before them? And with Rei, there was some doubt that she'd be in the loop on what happened and why Shinji wasn't present. There might even be some doubt that he's aware of her unless she was included in the information that Nico gave him. Peace.


	7. One Step Ahead

Creation began on 01-07-20

Creation ended on 03-08-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: One Step Ahead

Drake Toros sat at his desk in his quarters looking on his computer at the list of Zoids that he admired among the Gun Sniper. They were just a few flying Zoids, some heavily-armored Zoids, high-speed Zoids and Zoids that had a lot of firepower. He didn't have one picked to replace Leena's Gun Sniper when the time came for it to succumb to its end; he just liked looking at a few that helped him to decide on which Zoid that would be his would be the one best suited for as long as he could maintain it. Then, with a sigh, he got up and decided to do another maintenance check on his Gun Sniper, just to be sure that it was running as best as possible for the next Zoid match it might be involved in.

"…And I was like, _'I'd put that knife down if I were you, bub'_," he heard Valerie's voice as he entered the Zoid hanger, seeing her with Shinji and Geisha, just sitting in the middle of their Zoids. "I probably made the guy come close to soiling his pants."

Suddenly, Shinji turned his head towards Drake and waved over to him.

"Hey, Drake," he greeted, and Valerie and Geisha looked over at him. "What brings you out at this time of the evening?"

"Just…another maintenance checkup of the Gun Sniper," he explained.

"Again?" Geisha questioned. "But you just checked it the day before yesterday."

"Better safe than sorry when making sure it can do what it can for as long as possible."

Valerie looked at the antique Gun Sniper and got the feeling that no amount of maintenance on it could keep it going if its core was compromised.

"Do you need any help with it?" She asked him.

"No, I got it, but thanks for offering."

As he walked away, Valerie gestured for Shinji to contribute to the conversation they were having in the hanger.

"A policeman once accused me of stealing a bike that I had found lying on the ground," he revealed. "I was just going to take it to the lost and found. Of course, nobody believed me. What was I going to do with a bike? I can't even ride a skateboard."

"That's awful," Geisha expressed; they were each sharing bits of their saddest experiences from their individual pasts, and so far it seemed that Valerie and Shinji had periods in their lives where they either had trust issues or where people accused them of something they thought was true and wasn't true.

"Whatever did your aunt and uncle ever do about the false accusation from the policeman?" She asked him.

"They believed the policeman," he answered, "and did absolutely nothing to brighten my days living with them. They had already made up their minds about me long before that day even happened. I'm not one of their favorite relatives…if they even have a favorite."

"I don't mean to sound cruel, Shinji, but your family, the Ikaris, must either be blind, deaf and dumb or just insane. And another of my sad periods in my past…was some idiot harassing me about my polka-dotted yukata. Yeah, I'm not Japanese, but I love the culture. Well, I guess you would call it a pre-Second Impact culture now. The post-Second Impact culture is…well, uninspiring and dim to perception."

"I couldn't say for certain, Geisha," Shinji told her. "I never bothered to see any of Japan the way you do. What made you fall in love with it?"

"My grandmother gave me a yukata for Christmas when I was little. After that, I just…fell into the culture. I'll admit, I have a mooncake every now and then, despite them not being Japanese, but that's a guilty pleasure when eating other cuisine from the country."

"You'll get no argument from me about it. At least you admire my country's past. I can't…fit in with the present-day Japan. I don't think I'll ever fit in."

"Do you ever…miss Japan?" Valerie asked him.

"No. I mean, I thought I would after a while, but…I don't really miss it at all. I'm hoping my time away from there will be a good thing, even to those that would hate me for leaving."

"I don't hate you for leaving," Geisha expressed. "It's good that you're here. Not many people from Earth would find some measure of joy around Zi."

"Thanks."

Listening in on their conversation, Drake sighed and yelled, "My worst day was when my neighbors poked fun at my grandmother's Zoid being used by me! I challenged them to a match for bragging rights and showed them a thing or two!"

"How did the match go?" Valerie asked him.

"I used precision and strategy over heavy firepower, which they weren't expecting of me! I may use an antique Zoid that focuses mainly on heavy weapons and modifications, but I keep a calm head under pressure! I think I need to weld the cracks in the armor and joints!"

-x-

The JSSDF had to insist that Tokyo-3 be cleared of civilians when this new Angel showed up. There was the suspicion that this one wasn't like the first two that got taken out, since this one had only one distinguishing feature: It looked like a giant diamond with a strange, chorus-like sound it made as it floated towards the city. While NERV was tasked with protecting the city against Angel attacks, their lack of results from lack of action were what gave the military command authority over the operation, so NERV had to play the obedient dog and comply with the evacuation of the civilians instead of sending them to shelters inside the city.

Misato, despite their playing second fiddle to the men in charge, couldn't complain, since one of them asked if NERV had a decoy Evangelion to use against this Angel, since they had no clue as to how it operated. The only decoy they had was a balloon shaped in the guise of Unit-01, the Eva the Third Child was supposed to pilot the day he didn't show up, so they had it sent out over the lake. Her suspicions of someone giving out clues or hints to deal with these Angels every once in a while were starting to add up as someone doing whatever it took to ensure the Angels were dealt with without risking any lives to her, and this included people that some authoritarians had desired around, like Commander Ikari, who was upset at having to listen to the military.

BLAST! The decoy was destroyed the second it raised its fake rifle at the Angel from a distance, leaving the charred pieces scattered around the lake.

"Next," Misato uttered, and a train with a weak missile came out of the side of a hill and fired at the Angel.

It didn't even penetrate the AT-Field, but that didn't keep the Angel from unleashing another blast of energy that took it and the section of hill out, leaving scorched earth behind.

"Based on the data gathered," went one of the NERV personnel members to Misato, who would have to relay this to the military, "this Angel automatically attacks anything that comes within a certain radius of it and whenever attacked by something, it retaliates with its energy beam."

"And what about the Angel's AT-Field?" She questioned.

"It's constantly active. You'd need an Eva to disable it or the entire country's power grid to penetrate it. It's no wonder the JSSDF requested a decoy be used in place of the real deal."

"This Angel's literally a flying fortress. Offensively, defensively, it's almost perfect in its strategy. This is just lovely."

Again, this was something that probably would've turned out differently if Shinji was here. Even if NERV had made a sound argument in requesting that the ZBC force the immediate return of the Third Child to them, there was zero chance of the boy cooperating with them in the midst of an Angel attack, even if he had some training that stemmed from operating a Zoid.

"_We don't even know if he'd be able to synchronize with the Eva after becoming accustomed to operating a Zoid," _Maya had mentioned at one point.

While Ritsuko was confident that the boy could still sync with an Eva, Misato still had her doubts that he'd be willing after discovering why his father wanted him here. There were just too many variables and not enough information…other than what was being updated in the Zoid profile of the kid in question.

"So, what is the plan to deal with this Angel?" Ritsuko wanted to know from Misato, since the JSSDF couldn't defeat this Angel without destroying the entire city, meaning this operation would eventually fall into NERV's hands.

Since they had time to properly prepare for the Angels after two of them were defeated by the JSSDF, they could resolve the matter more effectively than they could have if they had the Third Child in their custody.

-x-

"Hey, everyone," Nico got the attention of the older members of the Clover Team as she entered the living room area of the hangar. "We just got a challenge request from another Zoid team to move up in Class "B"."

"Alright, who are we facing?" Drake asked, setting down his hand of cards as he and Geisha were playing cards.

"The Yeagerist Team," she revealed, which caused Geisha to frown. "Geisha, are you okay?"

"I was fine before you mentioned that group," Geisha responded. "The Yeagerist Team are a bunch of no-good A-holes and their leader is the worst among them."

"I take it you've met them before?" Valerie, who was laying on the couch, questioned her.

"I'm embarrassed to say I went out on a date with the leader once. He was not a admirer of any culture…unless it was about destroying it. And worse: He had the arrogance to try and take my Fire Phoenix and use it as a personal risk prize against some guy he had a rivalry with. I got in the cockpit and left him after that."

"You really love that Fire Phoenix, don't you?" Valerie questioned her.

"I've had it since I was ten! My grandfather told me where to find it before he died…and I had to climb a mountain to reach its lair. My mother grounded me after I disappeared for three days."

"You had to climb a mountain for three days?" Shinji asked her. "What was this mountain you climbed called?"

"It was Mt. Revival, and it took me eight hours to climb. I took my Zoid joyriding after finding it; it turns out that young children experiencing their first ride in a Zoid tend to lose sense of time because it feels good."

"I wish my first ride in Liger Rogue was like that."

"My first time in my Gustav wasn't as joyful and exciting as I had expected it to be, but the second time was better when I could make it go faster. Drake, what was the best time in your Zoid? Was it the first time? Or was it the second time?"

"First time," he answered her. "I was operating a biomechanical animal that was as big as a house and had the firepower to contend with a few threats. Even though my first Zoid is a hand-me-down, just being able to pilot a Zoid…reminds me of that Latin exclamation of carpe diem."

"Carpe diem?" Shinji repeated, confused.

"Seize the day," Valerie translated, "basically, you focus on what is in front of you today rather than what's beyond the day. Seize the day, break down barriers that stand between you and your goal, and don't look back."

"So…when do we face the Yeagerist Team?" Shinji asked Nico.

"Two days from now," she answered. "They're using two König Wolves and a…"

"Gungyalado," Geisha cut her off, which Nico nodded in the positive. "That's Spinel's most lethal Zoid. He's a take-no-prisoners fighter."

"But if he's using that Zoid," went Valerie, "he has to follow the guidelines revolving around its main weapon usage, meaning he can't use its most potent feature without violating the combat rules if the battlefield is too close to a populated area, no matter how much he wants to win."

"What is the main weapon of the Gungyalado?" Shinji questioned.

"A Charged Particle Cannon like Valerie's Geno Saurer, only more powerful," Nico explained. "But unlike the Geno Saurer, a Gungyalado doesn't need to anchor itself to the ground before firing because it can fly in the air."

"So which of us are going up against the Yeagerist Team?" Drake asked.

"That's the thing… I don't know which of you will have to sit this one out. All four of you are good…and your Zoids are impressive, as well. I don't want to choose one over the other…so I'll let you decide."

This was a new challenge. Against two König Wolves and a Gungyalado, they would likely need a combination of power and speed to win the match. More than likely, they could use the Gun Sniper, Geno Saurer and Liger Rogue, but they could've also used Geisha's Storm Sworder for its flight capabilities. Whichever way they went, they would need to have the advantage.

"How about Drake, Geisha and Valerie take them on?" Shinji had suggested of them, which surprised Nico; she would've expected him to fight for a shot at taking on this Zoid team.

"Are you sure?" Valerie asked him.

"Your Zoid has a powerful cannon with two claws that can triple your ferocity, Drake's Zoid's got an arsenal that he doesn't exhaust and Geisha's the only one with a Zoid that flies," he stated. "Liger Rogue could probably take out the König Wolves, but against a Gungyalado, that's probably just a fantasy…and we don't know how these guys are going to fight."

"Actually," Geisha uttered, "I may know exactly how they're going to fight. Spinel's strategy has always been considered to be a beatdown-based one, focusing on keeping his opponents on the defensive so that they have no shot of fighting back. But in one case, he did leave himself open to attack because he was so focused on who was within his perception that he didn't consider anyone taking him out from behind. One fighter almost managed to beat him that way before the battle ended due to a time limit."

"Well, we have today and tomorrow to figure out the best roster to take down the Yeagerist Team," Nico told them, already wanting to search for this battle in the ZBC archives because they had to record every battle that took place. "Let's see what we can come up with."

-x-

"…So, because Rei has a lower sync ratio than Asuka, Asuka will be the sniper while Rei will be handling defense against this Angel," Ritsuko informed the pilots of the operation against the Fifth Angel once the strategy to best the Angel was found.

To combat the Fifth Angel, NERV was going to use their experimental Positron Rifle to snipe the Angel from a safe distance while drawing power from the whole of Japan, penetrating the AT-Field and destroying the core inside.

Misato had to admit to herself that if they had fought against the Third Angel at the time with Shinji, they would've most likely been forced to rush everything else just to face an enemy that was out to get them.

"You do realize that if this fails, we're history, right?" Ritsuko asked her.

"Yeah," she responded as they were monitoring the deployment of the Evas from Central Dogma. "Still, this is what it is and we can't change that."

"The more we try to change things, the more they seem to stay the same…even when they don't seem the same."

"How long do we have now until the operation starts?"

"Less than an hour left. Japan should be experiencing a massive blackout by now."

"And if we survive this, what is the aftermath plan?"

"If we survive this operation against the Angel, we'll have more preparation time until the next attack. We always need to be one step ahead of the enemy."

-x-

"You were right, Geisha," said Drake to the girl as they all observed the recorded footage of Spinel's battle with an opposing Zoid team that had one of its members nearly get the drop on his Gungyalado before the time limit ran out. "He was so preoccupied with his targets in front of him and using all that firepower that he was unconcerned with the possibility of someone sneaking up behind him. But do you think he's learned to anticipate such a move in the future?"

"Two years since that battle…and he's never won the royal cup?" Nico questioned. "There's a chance that most Zoid teams out there are afraid of facing him and prefer to avoid the Yeagerist Team in favor of other teams with Zoids that don't focus so much on firepower."

"If other Zoid teams have deliberately avoided him, what possible reason could there be for them to challenge us?" Drake questioned with curiosity.

"The gamble my father made with the promise of riches if he beats us?" Shinji suggested; of course, that was the only reason any opposing Zoid team would want to fight them.

"Spinel's gonna have to work hard for his payday," Geisha expressed, evaluating the old footage further, trying to see another option they could take against the Gungyalado.

"We may have to refrain from using either Liger Rogue or the Gun Sniper," Drake stated.

"You doubt your Zoid can survive this match?" Valerie asked him.

"Despite my extensive maintenance and experience with it, my grandmother's Gun Sniper can't take more than a few heavy blows. The harder and heavier the blows are, the greater the risk of putting it down for good."

"Gun Snipers were a common Zoid over two-hundred years ago," Valerie explained, "but then production of them ceased, and I mean, ceased completely, down to the aftermarket-care parts."

"It was one of the first Zoids to be put to pasture?" Shinji asked her.

"People wanted more…brutality over accuracy. So, Gun Snipers and Pteras were among those that were decommissioned first, then Command Wolves and Dibison and Rev Raptors. Only the wealthy and social elite can put them back into production."

"That's awful," Shinji expressed his disappointment.

"Money and power talk around this world and any other world, Shinji," said Nico, understanding his disappointment. "Money and power talk."

-x-

It was a close call, but Asuka had managed to pull it off with just one shot. The Fifth Angel went down just twenty seconds after breaching the Geo-Front. There wasn't anything it could do to retaliate or defend itself against the positron beam that reduced its core to molten pulp, saving the city.

NERV was relieved to be able to see the next day, though this was only as a whole with the majority of the personnel.

Gendo Ikari, on the other hand, looked at this success with just as much disdain as he had towards his son's rebellious behavior towards authority figures…and those that actually supported and encouraged him refuse his responsibility.

Soon enough, with the defeat of the Angel, the lights in Tokyo-3 sprang to life within the next hour, and a phone on a desk rang.

"Ikari," Gendo spoke after answering his phone.

-x-

_"The harder and heavier the blows are, the greater the risk of putting it down for good,"_ Shinji recalled Drake's reason for why the Gun Sniper couldn't or shouldn't be used much in the upcoming match as he stood in front that night in the hangar.

Then he looked over at Geisha's Storm Sworder and Valerie's Geno Saurer. After some browsing through the Zoid database, he discovered that these two were among the types that belonged to or could be acquired or maintained by members of the upper-class social elite on Zi, What Nico had mentioned about money and power talking on any world had been proven true, and no doubt those with both could command any Zoid manufacturing facility to return to production on any old Zoid if they felt like it.

"You're ancient, I can understand," he told the Gun Sniper, "but I respect you for helping us get to where we are right now. However the next match happens, we'll all do our best to win it."

"Are you talking to my Zoid, Shinji?" He turned around and saw Drake, dressed in a discolored jumper that he wore as his sleepwear.

"Uh, Drake, I…I…" He tried to explain to him, but Drake raised his left hand.

"Thanks for saying that you respect the Gun Sniper," he told him. "Not many people do."

"This is a team we're all on, right?" Shinji asked him. "I respect each and every one of you, people and Zoids. And…you all actually make me feel like I belong."

Drake nodded and expressed, "You do belong. I can't imagine who'd be in your place if Nico didn't pick you over countless other teens on Earth. And I must admit, your piloting Liger Rogue is a shot in the dark. You're the most unpredictable combination, a fourteen-year-old from Japan whose life wasn't going anyplace of any significance…and a Zoid that nobody else could pilot."

"Thank you."

"That Yeagerist Team won't know what hit them when we face them."

Shinji then retired to his room, taking one last look at the Gun Sniper.

To be continued…

A/N: I think I'll take a break from this to setup a poll for it. Be on the lookout for it.


	8. Battle against Defeat

Creation began on 03-20-20

Creation ended on 07-14-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: Battle against Defeat

A/N: The polls are closed, and the results are in. Here's the outcome.

"I can't believe we're doing it this way," went Geisha as she and Nico sat inside the latter's Gustav as they pulled the Liger Rogue and Gun Sniper behind them towards the battlefield where the Judge would crash and designate the area.

"It was a last-minute decision, but nobody challenged it," Nico told her, looking at her GPS locator in front of her behind the steering wheel, seeing that Valerie's Geno Saurer was keeping a steady pace behind them. "Are you afraid that your ex is going to prevail against Shinji, Drake and Valerie because of his Gungyalado?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. It's not that I don't have faith in our team, but this is a lot of pressure for Drake and his Gun Sniper."

Nico sighed and understood where Geisha's concern was coming from; because the Gun Sniper wasn't getting any better in its performance due to its age, Drake would have to be extra careful if he wanted to preserve it for as long as he could. Switching on a camera on the second trailer the Gun Sniper was on, she took a long look at the hand-me-down Zoid and thought of the idea of it facing off against the Gungyalado, which ended up not even being a contest. Then, she pressed a button to turn on the intercom between her Gustav and Drake's Gun Sniper.

"How are you doing up there, Drake?" She asked him.

"Runnin' on sunshine, Nico," he responded.

"Any chance you want to back out?"

"No, that'd mark my conscience as a weakling because I backed out of a challenge that I chose to participate in. What kind of example would I be setting if I did that?"

"No offense, Drake," went Geisha to him, "but if we lose this match, I will be yelling at you."

"None taken, Geisha."

Crash! Nico looked up ahead and saw the crash site where the Judge would be located.

"Well, this is," she sighed. "We can't turn back now."

"Yeah," Geisha agreed with her.

The Gustav stopped and twenty seconds later, the Liger Rogue and the Gun Sniper got off the trailers to join the Geno Saurer.

"Everyone, be careful out there," Nico instructed the three pilots, "and best of luck."

"We're going to need it and skill," said Valerie as she took notice of the two König Wolves and the Gungyalado. "I'm glad those Zoids ain't mine, because we're going to send them to the repair shop after this."

"I'm all for it," went Shinji.

-x-

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," went Shigeru as he and Hyuga were about to watch the Zoid battle between the Clover Team and the Yeagerist Team. "That Gun Sniper looks like it's about to go to its grave fighting."

"Yeah, but look at that Zoid they're going up against," Hyuga pointed out to the picture of the Gungyalado. "That thing's a monster."

"Looks like they're going down the firepower route."

"Hey, did you hear?" They heard Maya ask them as she ran down the hall to meet them. "A new Zoid match is about to happen."

"Oh, my gosh, look at this Zoid they're going up against."

"It's a monster."

"Ready… Fight!" The voice of the Judge announced, and the battle began.

-x-

Shinji went left, Valerie went right, and Drake just fired rockets at Spinel's Gungyalado.

"I swear, you've set your standards quite low, Geisha," they heard Spinel's voice on the intercom, addressing the only combatant on the Clover Team that wasn't competing right now. "You used to be such a daring person."

_Is he really trying to talk to Geisha during a Zoid match? _Nico wondered as she turned to face Geisha in her Gustav, who seemed disgusted.

"Less talking to me, more facing your opponents," she heard her say to him, and then cut off his connection to the communication channel. "I really don't wanna talk about it."

"The sounds of a man still pining for who he claims to care about," Nico told her. "Personally, I rather he focus on the match, too."

On her screen, Nico watched as Shinji engaged a König Wolf with a large cannon on its back. It was identified as a miniaturized Buster Cannon, a rather powerful weapon designed for the obsolete Gojulas Zoid.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Nico gasped, and then opened her channel to Shinji's Liger Rogue. "Shinji, be careful! That's a miniaturized Buster Cannon from the Gojulas series! It makes regular cannons on smaller Zoids look like water guns or slingshots."

"I see it," Shinji responded, keeping at a distance. "I'll take that König Wolf out before it can get a chance to take out Rogue."

"Rrraurgh!" Liger Rogue roared as it ran across the field towards the König Wolf that was aiming its cannon at it. "Rrraurgh!"

Meanwhile, Valerie and her Geno Saurer were facing off against the other König Wolf, which was armed with a cache of rockets on its back.

"Just for the record," Valerie told the pilot of the König Wolf, "I've dealt with missiles before. I was eight when I learned to avoid them. Old habits die hard."

"So you say," the guy piloting the wolf Zoid responded. "Were you trained to be an assassin or something? Were your parents perfectionists that spared no expense trying to breed the perfect daughter in an unstable world?"

Valerie engaged the Charged Particle Gun and Buster Claws.

"No," she answered coldly, "they were just a pair of losers that pushed me away without even trying to justify their actions."

BLAST! Her Geno Saurer fired, and the König Wolf activated an Energy Shield…and ended up getting knocked eight feet backwards.

"Ouch," the guy groaned.

"Valerie, I think you overdid it," Nico told her.

"Uh, oops?" Valerie responded.

"Well, he got beat before he get fight, so that's one down, two to go," Geisha expressed.

-x-

"…That Valerie Axiom woman just cuts to the chase," one of the NERV employees expressed, watching as the enemy Zoid pilot's Zoid just fell out of action.

"Yeah," another employee accepted.

But Fuyutsuki watched on his tablet as Shinji and Liger Rogue just narrowly evaded an energy blast from the other wolf Zoid by leaping into the air, its claws surging with energy.

"Strike Laser Claw?" He wondered as he saw the liger Zoid tackle the wolf, tearing a major gash in the right side. "Whoa… Talk about a major break."

The König Wolf fell to its side and was unable to get up, probably due to the cannon on its back.

"Ikari's kid bagged another sweet win," he heard one of the personnel say.

-x-

Drake's Gun Sniper had just run out of rockets and missiles to fire…and the Gungyalado emerged from the smoke like a demon emerging from the depths of Hell.

"Did you honestly think that antique was a match for me?!" Spinel asked him over the intercom. "Gun Snipers are obsolete! Nothing more than relics from a time where people thought the best Zoids had to be better than the other person's Zoid!"

Then, he saw the enemy Zoid prepare to charge its Charged Particle Gun.

"Oh, damn," Drake sighed, and used his gatling guns to try and damage the Gungyalado, only to see the beams fired bounce off its armor.

"I'm sending your Zoid to the scrapyard!" Spinel yelled, and the CPG fired!

"Oh!" Drake gasped, trying to run and avoid the beam that would total his Gun Sniper. "Move, move, move!"

The beam struck the ground and sent chunks of earth into the air trying to hit the antique velociraptor Zoid.

"You can't run forever, you know!"

"I don't need to run forever! Just long enough to win this battle!"

"You do realize that we're not being timed here."

"Whoever said anything about being timed?"

Crack! The Gun Sniper's left leg gave out and Drake fell to the ground.

"Oh, no," he gasped, realizing that he had put too much pressure on the legs and they couldn't take it any further. "Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!"

The particle beam struck his Gun Sniper…and the Clover Team was down a Zoid.

"Nothing more than a relic from an obsolete time," Spinel declared.

Inside his cockpit, Drake, feeling the gash on the right side of his head, looked down at the status screen in front of him and found his Gun Sniper had too many places where damage was critical. There was loss of function in the legs and arms, heavy loss of armaments and an update on the core showing that it had become compromised.

"Drake!" He heard Nico's voice. "Drake, come in! Are you alright?!"

"Ah…just a little banged up," he responded, "but my Gun Sniper's had it. Joints and weapons are heavily damaged and the core is compromised. I really let my grandmother down, trashing her Zoid. Unable to continue the match."

"You haven't let us down yet, Drake," he heard Shinji say. "Valerie and I got this."

Spinel turned his Gungyalado around…and saw that Liger Rogue tackle it to the ground.

"What?!" He gasped, trying to get the liger off. "No!"

He managed to knock it off and get back up, looking down upon the Zoid.

"Don't you newbies ever learn not to overestimate your abilities?" He questioned.

"Yeah," he heard Shinji say to him, "we do."

BLAST! Spinel's Gungyalado was suddenly struck from behind…by another particle beam, right through the back and out the front of its waist, cracking the wings and causing it to fall to the ground.

"You underestimated the power of teamwork, Spinel," Valerie's voice uttered through the intercom. "You take out one of ours…and you better expect the rest to exact payback."

"Battle over," the Judge declared. "The winner is the Clover Team!"

-x-

"They won again," went Misato as she and Ritsuko were watching the broadcast of the Zoid battle that Shinji was involved.

"And they bested a Zoid armed with an energy weapon that was more powerful than the one Ms. Axiom's Geno Saurer has," Ritsuko expressed, more impressed by the energy weapon than the Zoids themselves.

"But they lost one of their Zoids in the process," Asuka reminded them, seeing that the Gun Sniper was too damaged. "They probably gotta throw that one away."

-x-

The drive back to the hangar was silent in Nico's Gustav. After the match was over, Drake's Gun Sniper finally bit the dust and fossilized, dying after being alive for so long.

Someone wanted to speak up to Drake, but they didn't know what to say to him. This had been Shinji's first time seeing a Zoid die, so he wasn't sure how to speak to Drake about how it felt losing a Zoid you had been around for a long time. Not even Geisha or Valerie knew how to address him on this.

"How are you holding up, Drake?" Nico finally broke the silence.

"It hurts a lot," he responded, "but I'm forever grateful to Leena's Gun Sniper. At least now she's able to continue pulverizing her rivals with it in the next world."

Beep! Drake reached into his pants and pulled out a disc-shaped device.

He tapped on it and it lit up with green light, revealing a woman's face.

"Hey, Mom," he greeted the woman.

"I heard you won the last match," they all heard her say to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Just a minor head injury. My Gun Sniper fell in the last match, though."

"Did it go out fighting or did it go out silently?"

"Honestly, it kinda went out doing both, fighting silently."

"It'll be a while before we can send you a new Zoid."

"Take your time, Mother. As of now, I'm on the mend. I'll be helping the team from the sidelines. I'm still involved, just not combating."

"Heh-heh. Okay, Drake. You take care."

The chat ended then and Drake looked at everyone in the Gustav.

"What?" He asked them. "I still know maintenance with other Zoids."

Geisha just chuckled and said, "When I see your next Zoid, I hope it's just like you: Enduring."

"Had any ideas on what your next Zoid will be, Drake?" Nico asked him.

"No, but I'll get to that point, eventually," he answered.

To be continued…

A/N: The Clover Team won, but they lost the Gun Sniper, and it'll be a while before Drake gets a new Zoid. It's anyone's guess at what it'll be.


End file.
